Women who were training as midwives and nurses in Afghanistan have been ordered not to return to classes, effectively closing off their last route to further education in the country.
Five separate institutions across Afghanistan have also confirmed to the BBC that the Taliban had instructed them to close until further notice, with videos shared online showing students crying at the news.
Although the BBC has yet to confirm the order officially with the Taliban Government’s Health Ministry, the closure appears to be in line with the group’s wider policy on female education, which has seen teenage girls unable to access secondary and higher education since August 2021.
One of the few avenues still open to women seeking education was through further education colleges, where they could learn to be nurses or midwives.
Midwifery and nursing are also the only careers women can pursue under the Taliban government’s restrictions on women – a vital one, as male medics are not allowed to treat women unless a male guardian is present.
Just three months ago, the BBC was given access to one Taliban-run midwife training centre, where more than a dozen women in their 20s were learning how to deliver babies.
The women were happy to have been given the chance to learn, but even then, some of them expressed fear about whether this might be stopped eventually.
What will happen to those women, and another estimated 17 000 women on training courses, is unclear.
No formal announcement has been made, although two sources in the Ministry of Health confirmed the ban to BBC Afghan off the record.
In videos sent to the BBC from other training colleges, trainees can be heard weeping.
One Kabul student said she had been told to “wait until further notice”.
“Even though it is the end of our semester, exams have not yet been conducted, and we have not been given permission to take them,” she said.
Another student revealed they “were only given time to grab our bags and leave the classrooms”.
“They even told us not to stand in the courtyard because the Taliban could arrive at any moment, and something might happen. Everyone was terrified,” she said.
What this means for women’s healthcare also now remains to be seen: last year, the United Nations said Afghanistan needed an additional 18 000 midwives to meet the country’s needs.
Afghanistan already has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), with a report released last year noting 620 women were dying per 100 000 live births.
BBC article – Afghan women 'banned from midwife courses' in latest blow to rights (Open access)
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