Afghanistan ranked as least positive country in world: Study

"Afghanistan has ranked as the least positive country in the world every year since 2017, apart from 2020 when Gallup could not survey the country because of the pandemic," the report was quoted as saying by Tolo News, adding that "after dropping to a global record low of 32 in 2021, the situation was not much different a year later. The country’s score of 34 in 2022 is the lowest in the world."

The Gallup surveys taken in July and August 2022 focused on five negative experiences and it was conducted across 142 nations.

“Mental security requires stability, law enforcement, facilitating citizen freedoms and creating services such as employment, education and work that can bring the freedoms of citizens, and when the freedoms come, mental security can be maintained and expanded,”  Hujatullah Merzae, a lecturer, told Tolo News.

Kabul residents said they are facing unemployment and poverty as the main challenges.

"Even though I am an educated person, now I collect bottles. This should be considered by our elders -- those who are above us -- what will be the effect on a person's brain when an educated person collects bottles to make ends meet?" Mohammad Nayeem, a street vendor, told the news portal. 

“We are totally crazy, I am mentally crazy, I don't understand where I am these days and where I am working, this is how it is, what else can we do, poverty and misery are everywhere,” Ahmad Zia, a Kabul resident, told Tolo News.

The Taliban government of Afghanistan, however, rejected the report.

"We reject this Gallup poll ... which is not valid. In the past, Gallup always made propaganda against Afghanistan,” Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman of the Taliban government, told Tolo News.