The Taliban have banned women from training as nurses and midwives in Afghanistan, dealing another blow to women’s health and education.
The ban was announced on Monday during a meeting in Kabul of Public Health Ministry officials, following orders from Haibatullah Akhundzadahe taliban supreme leader.
The directive prevents women from attending medical training institutes and applies to both private and government institutions.
It means that women will no longer be able to enter work in critical fields such as midwifery, nursing, dentistry and laboratory sciences, from December 3, further restricting employment opportunities. afghan women.
A doctor working in a blood bank at a public hospital in Kabulwhere women have been prohibited from continuing their laboratory technician courses, said Bakht-ur-Rehman Sharafat, deputy health minister, informed the directors of all medical institutes about the Taliban’s order to suspend the education of women. girls in both public and private institutes.
For many women, medical education had been the last hope for career advancement after previous bans restricted access to other educational opportunities.
Zainab, a dental student at a private institute in Kabul, said the ban was devastating.
“That was the only path left for girls who had been excluded from other fields. Now even that has been taken away from us,” he said.
Videos began appearing on X, formerly Twitter, and other social media platforms from Kabul, Badakhshan and Faryab. In each, the same scenes: female students standing outside their institutes, pleading with Taliban officials, only to be rejected.
In one video, students at the Badakhshan Medical Institute in Afghanistan are seen singing in Persian and crying in the hallways: “Come, oh heaven, and cry with me.”
In another video, students are seen crying as they leave the classrooms, and some singing quietly as a form of protest. “You are not weak, calm down,” an instructor consoles her students in one of the videos.
A Taliban official at a medical college in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province announces in another video that women are no longer allowed to continue their studies amid screams and sobs from students.
“Attending these classes was a lifesaver for us. Now we don’t know what to do,” one student said, adding that staff warned them not to gather outside for fear of attracting Taliban officials.
The ban has immediate and long-term implications for the already strained health system.
The country needs thousands more midwives and nurses to meet the needs of its population, according to international health organizations.
It faces one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, with the World Health Organization reporting 620 deaths per 100,000 live births.
Female healthcare workers are critical to addressing this crisis, especially as male doctors are often prohibited from treating female patients.
A Health Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision would worsen staffing shortages.
“We are already struggling to provide adequate care, especially to women,” they said. “This ban will make things even worse.”
The Taliban’s restrictions on women’s education have sparked widespread condemnation.
Robert C Dickson, UK chargé d’affaires in Afghanistan, said he was concerned by news reports that the Taliban will deny medical education to women in Afghanistan.
“This is another affront to women’s right to education and will further restrict access to healthcare for Afghan women and children,” she wrote on X.
Winston Peters, New Zealand’s foreign minister, said the country supports international efforts to hold the Taliban accountable for their treatment of women.
Heather Barracting deputy director of women’s rights at Human Rights Watch, said the new decree, which halts the training of new health workers, will result in unnecessary pain, misery, illness and death for women forced to go without medical care, as that there will be no health workers to treat them.
While the Taliban have claimed that these bans are aimed at aligning education with Islamic principles, critics argue that the policies are aimed at systematically excluding women from public life.
‘Gender apartheid’
Observers have described the restrictions as “gender apartheid,” noting that they undermine not only women’s rights but the broader development of Afghan society.
For many Afghan women, the ban represents another obstacle in a series of systematic exclusions. “It’s not just about education,” said one health care expert.
“This is about the survival of women in Afghanistan, who are left without access to care, support and opportunities for the future.”