The Taliban have reportedly banned Afghan women from attending nursing and midwifery classes, another blow to women's rights since the Taliban took power. The latest directive closes one of the last avenues for women to receive an education.
“This shocking decision has dashed the hopes of hundreds of women who wanted to receive an education and serve their communities,” Maniza Bakhtari, Austria's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to Afghanistan, told FOX News Digital. Ta.
Afghan nurses hold a newborn baby born on the auspicious day of 12.12.12 in Mazar-e-Sharif, December 12, 2012, in the maternity ward of a hospital.
Human Rights Watch noted that the decree was issued by Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and was communicated by the Taliban Ministry of Public Health during a meeting with private medical institutions.
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The latest decree follows the Taliban's earlier ban on girls' secondary education and women's universities, extinguishing the last rays of hope for young Afghan women.
Ambassador Bakhtari, who is also Afghanistan's representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said the ban was not only a serious violation of human rights but also a serious setback for Afghanistan's development.
“Preventing women from accessing essential jobs will lead to higher maternal and neonatal mortality rates and undermine the country's health care system and progress,” the ambassador said.
Taliban security personnel guard an Afghan woman wearing a burqa as she walks through a market street in Baharak district, Badakhshan province, February 26, 2024. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
Women attending nursing and midwifery courses were ordered not to attend classes anymore. Nursing and midwifery offered women one of the last opportunities to enter professions that were exempt from the ban the Taliban imposed on women's employment after taking power in 2021.
In a post on X, UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett said the “unaccountable and unwarranted” announcement would have devastating consequences for all people if implemented and must be withdrawn.
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Lack of access to health care and adequate services exposes Afghans to diseases and even everyday illnesses that can be treated with basic health services. Preventing women from studying in health care institutions has a negative impact on Afghanistan's entire population, which is in dire need of health workers.
Rural areas where cultural norms prevent male doctors from treating female patients will be hardest hit by the Taliban's latest ban.
A girl reads a book in a classroom on the first day of the new school year in Kabul, Saturday, March 25, 2023. Afghanistan's schools will open for the new educational year on Wednesday, but thousands of girls remain barred from attending classes for the third term. The year the Taliban banned girls from attending school after sixth grade. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Norouzi, File)
Afghanistan has one of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world and is one of the most dangerous places on earth to give birth. According to the World Bank, 620 women die from pregnancy-related causes for every 100,000 live births. In 2020, the World Health Organization estimated that 24 women die every day during childbirth or pregnancy.
Female students walk to school on the road in Gardes, Paktia province on September 8, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)
A ban on medical training for women is likely to further worsen Afghanistan's growing humanitarian crisis. The crisis has only worsened since the Taliban took power and the international community sharply cut financial support in protest of the group's oppressive policies against women.
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According to the United Nations, more than 23 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2023. The world organization also reported that 4 million Afghans are malnourished, including 3.2 million children under the age of five.
According to Human Rights Watch, Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where women and girls are prohibited from secondary and higher education, as well as from participating in many areas of the economy and government.
The Taliban broke all their promises to respect women's rights after taking Kabul. In September 2021, shortly after overthrowing the US-backed Republic of Afghanistan, the Taliban banned girls from attending secondary education beyond the sixth grade, and in December 2022, banned women from attending higher education.
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The United Nations and international nongovernmental organizations called on the Taliban to abolish this directive and other repressive policies against women.
