The Taliban has announced a ban preventing women in Afghanistan from attending institutions that offer medical training.
A video circulating online captures the heartbreaking moment when female medical students were seen softly weeping as the announcement was delivered by a male official.
This decision represents the Taliban’s latest effort to eliminate any remaining opportunities for older girls and women to access education.
Ironically, Afghan cultural norms prohibit women from being treated by male doctors. In one tragic case, a pregnant woman was forced to deliver her baby in the street while her husband was brutally assaulted for trying to take her to a hospital.
In many instances, women must describe their symptoms to their husbands, who then relay the information to male doctors. The doctors, in turn, prescribe treatments without ever examining the patient. Female healthcare professionals were seen as a vital solution to this issue.
With women now barred from training as midwives or medical professionals, the ban is expected to lead to increased suffering, illness, and preventable deaths, as female patients will be left without appropriate care.
In addition to the ban on education and healthcare training, the Taliban has imposed harsh restrictions on women, including prohibiting them from speaking in public, raising their voices even in their homes, or showing their faces outside. Women are also forbidden from leaving their homes without a male relative accompanying them.
