Program
Your Body Matters
Knowledge about our own bodies should never be a taboo. Your Body Matters brings culturally sensitive health education to Afghan women in Switzerland and beyond, in their own languages and in safe, trusted spaces.
The challenge
For many Afghan women, sexual and reproductive health is still surrounded by silence and stigma. In Afghanistan, the situation has worsened since the Taliban returned to power: women's access to education and work has been severely restricted, and since late 2024 women are no longer allowed to train in health professions. The country has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. In 2023 alone, an estimated 7,600 women died from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, many of them preventable (WHO, 2024).
These taboos do not stay behind when women leave the country. They shape how women understand their bodies and whether they seek help, wherever they live.
Why it matters
Many women know little about their own bodies, including the menstrual cycle, and often delay seeking medical care. In Switzerland, language barriers, shame and unfamiliarity with the health system keep many Afghan women from getting the care they need. Conditions that could be treated early are often recognised only after years of pain.
Our response
Your Body Matters is a culturally sensitive health education project by Humanity Network for Women (HNW). We hold in-person workshops for Afghan women in Switzerland and online workshops for Afghan women wherever they live. Sessions take place in Dari/Farsi, Pashto and German and focus on three topics: menstrual health, pregnancy and maternal health, and contraception and prevention. All medical content is reviewed by health professionals. We also help women find their way to the right services in the Swiss health system.
Founder's story: Wajma Mohammadi
As an unmarried woman, I was told that seeing a gynaecologist was not appropriate, and that my pain would disappear once I got married. For years, I lived with severe pain.
Even after moving to Switzerland, these taboos were so deeply rooted that it never crossed my mind that my pain could be related to women's health. I was taken to emergency departments again and again, until one day I was brought by ambulance to a gynaecologist and diagnosed with endometriosis. I spent some of the most beautiful years of my life in pain.
We know so much about the world around us, yet because of these taboos we remain unaware of our own bodies. I do not want other women to suffer pain that could be prevented. As women, we must support one another. Our bodies matter.