In today’s “Editor’s Diary,” I want to move away from our usual lifestyle beats—the seasonal wardrobes, the skincare routines, and the interior design trends—to talk about something heavy, yet undeniably part of the global “lifestyle” we often overlook. Afghanistan.

As I prepare to transition this personal blog into a larger, more comprehensive lifestyle site like Womanedit, I’ve been thinking a lot about the responsibility that comes with having a platform. To be a “lifestyle” editor shouldn’t just mean choosing the right linens or the most aesthetic travel destinations; it means acknowledging the lives being lived across the globe and refusing to look away when those lives are in crisis, like in Afghanistan.

Sometimes, a single image stops your scroll and stays with you for days. This week, for me, it was a series of them—visual reminders that while we discuss the “edit” of our daily lives, millions are living through a reality that cannot be edited away. These are the faces of the Afghanistan humanitarian crisis 2025, a situation so dire it challenges the very meaning of the word “lifestyle.”

The Reality on the Ground: Afghanistan, December 2025

As we sit here in late December 2025, the statistics coming out of Afghanistan are staggering. We are witnessing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises in history. According to the UN OCHA Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for 2025, nearly 22.9 million people—nearly half of the country’s population—require urgent assistance.

The images I’ve been looking at tell a story that spreadsheets simply cannot:

The Breadline in Kabul, Afghanistan: In one photograph, a Taliban fighter stands guard as people receive food rations distributed by a Chinese humanitarian aid group. It is a chilling tableau of the “new normal” in Kabul, where the basic right to eat is mediated by those in power and where international aid is the only thing standing between families and starvation.
The Surprise of an Apple: There is a haunting photo of three internally displaced children in a camp on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. They are looking with pure, heart-wrenching surprise at a single apple that their mother brought home after a day of begging. They aren’t looking at it as a snack; they are looking at it like a miracle.
The Lines of Women: Afghan women wait in the dust to receive food rations. Since the transition in 2021, their rights have been systematically stripped away. The 2024 Vice and Virtue laws (PVPV) have only tightened in 2025, essentially criminalizing their voices and movement. For many of these women, these aid lines are the only time they are “allowed” to be part of the public sphere.

A Legacy of Compound Shocks: The Kunar Earthquake

How did a nation get to this point? It is a layering of tragedies—what experts call “compound shocks.” Beyond the political transition that crashed the economy, the country has been battered by climate change and natural disasters.

On August 31, 2025, a powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake tore through the eastern provinces, specifically Kunar, Nangarhar, and Laghman. The epicenter was in the Nurgal District of Kunar, a remote area where homes are traditionally built from mud and stone on steep mountain slopes. When the ground shook at midnight, these homes became tombs.

The human cost was devastating:

Over 2,200 people were killed, with the WHO suggesting the toll was closer to 3,000.
Heartbreakingly, UNICEF estimated that half of the dead—over 1,100—were children.
In Kunar province alone, up to 98% of structures in the most affected districts were damaged or destroyed.

I saw a photo from the aftermath that I haven’t been able to shake: the body of a young girl, gently pulled from the rubble, placed on a simple wooden bed frame. She was one of the 391 students killed in an event that decimated over 300 school buildings.

The Funding Cliff: A Stretched Breaking Point

The most terrifying development of 2025 has been the funding cliff. In January, the United States suspended nearly all foreign aid to Afghanistan, which previously covered nearly 47% of the humanitarian response. Other donors followed suit, leading to what the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) calls a “pipeline break.”

What does this look like in real life?

1.7 million children are at risk of death due to the closure of over 300 nutrition delivery points.
422 health facilities have closed this year, cutting off 3 million people from life-saving care.
10 million people in Afghanistan lost access to food assistance in just a matter of months.

The Systematic Erasure of Women

As an editor focused on women’s voices, the situation for Afghan women’s rights in 2025 is especially unbearable. Women are now barred from most workplaces, including NGOs. This is a strategic catastrophe because, in a deeply conservative society, aid for women must be delivered by women. Without female aid workers, millions of widows and female-headed households are effectively cut off from the world.

How We Can Help: Turning Empathy into Action

I don’t want this post to just be a list of sorrows. If you feel the same weight I do, there are reputable, vetted organizations still on the ground, navigating this impossible landscape to reach those who need it most.

If you have the means, please consider supporting these organizations:

Women for Afghan Women (WAW): A grassroots organization providing life-changing services, legal aid, and humanitarian support both in Afghanistan and to refugees in the US.
Afghanaid: They are currently on the ground in Kunar and other remote provinces, providing “winterization” kits—blankets, fuel, and heating—to families who lost everything in the earthquake.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF): In the face of a collapsing healthcare system, MSF is a literal lifeline for maternal health and malnutrition treatment in provinces like Khost and Helmand.
Women for Women International: Their Stronger Women, Stronger Nations program provides vocational training and a sense of community to women who have been told they have no place in society.

I want this blog to be indexed by Google as a place of substance—a place that cares about the world. As I look toward the future of Womanedit, I want us to be a community that looks outward as much as we look inward. We cannot “edit” the world’s pain, but we can refuse to look away.