Afghanistan’s only avenue for women pursuing higher education was essentially cut off when they were told not to return to school in the morning to complete their midwifery and nursing courses. Videos of students sobbing at the news have been circulated online, and five different colleges throughout Afghanistan have reported that the Taliban had ordered them to close the courses for women till further notice.
Female students at a medical school in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province weep as a man announces that they are no longer allowed to continue their studies. The Taliban’s new order bans women from medical education, closing the last remaining institutions where women can learn. pic.twitter.com/C3SNsIC6OY
— Habib Khan (@HabibKhanT) December 3, 2024
The shutdown, however, is consistent with the group’s broader stance toward female education, which has prevented adolescent girls from pursuing secondary and postsecondary education since August 2021. According to a director at the well-known international organization Human Rights Watch, the policies will cause women and girls to struggle to get medical attention during childbirth, which will result in their deaths.
Two Ministry of Health insiders confirmed the restriction to BBC Afghan off the record, although no official announcement has been issued. According to sources close to the Taliban’s Ministry of Public Health, they have been instructed to bar female students from attending medical schools until further notice. In several midwifery facilities in various Afghan districts, the restriction is reportedly in effect.
“This is closing one of the very few loopholes that was still left in the Taliban’s ban on education for women and girls but it is also a particularly significant loophole because this will lead to women and girls dying,” stated Heather Barr, interim women’s rights deputy director at Human Rights Watch.
She added, “The Taliban have also banned women from being treated by male healthcare professionals and now what they are doing effectively is cutting off the pipeline of new female healthcare professionals.” She cautioned that the current actions are part of a larger trend in which the Taliban are significantly limiting the lives of women and taking “more and more from them.” The Taliban had stated time and time again that females would be allowed to return to school when many issues were addressed, including making sure the curriculum was “Islamic.” It hasn’t happened yet.
The country’s further education colleges, which offered nursing and midwifery programs, were among the few remaining professions available to women. This is crucial because male medics are not permitted to treat women unless accompanied by a male guardian. This also raises significant concerns because, per the United Nations in 2023, Afghanistan needs 18,000 more midwives to meet its needs.
Afghanistan has one of the highest rates of maternal fatalities worldwide, with an estimated one woman dying every two hours. The ramifications were huge, according to Mariam Aman, assistant editor for the BBC’s Afghan language service. “This immediate ban is impacting around 17,000 female student trainees. You can imagine five years down the line, women will be giving birth at home alone and there will be districts with no midwives and no access to health.”
Currently, women in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are not allowed to work out at the gym, visit a salon or even worship or speak in public. The Taliban’s education ministry forbade women and girls from attending schools within a month of seizing Kabul. Additionally, the Taliban authorities declared that the females would not be allowed to continue their education past the sixth grade and in December 2022, the prohibition was expanded to include colleges and universities.
