KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) warned that the Taliban’s ban on women and girls pursuing medical education will worsen Afghanistan’s healthcare system.
During the council’s meeting on Afghanistan on Thursday, December 12, member states and briefers called on the Taliban to lift the ban and end all discriminatory policies and practices against women and girls.
The Taliban authorities recently ordered all public and private institutions to suspend medical education programs, such as nursing and midwifery, for women and girls. The directive, reportedly issued by the reclusive Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, took effect on December 3 and impacted at least 38,000 female students pursuing medical education across the country.
The ban on female medical education is the latest in a series of edicts enforced by the Taliban authorities since taking over in August 2021. Previously, they banned women and girls from schools, universities, and most jobs, among other restrictions.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US Ambassador to the UN and chair of Thursday’s UNSC meeting, called the Taliban’s latest ban “sick,” “heartless,” and “a death sentence for Afghan women.”
“How will women’s health care needs be met in the future if there are no qualified women doctors, nurses, dentists, and midwives? And male doctors are not allowed to treat women,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
“This is not cultural, and it’s not religious. It is unfathomable. It is sick. It is heartless. It means these men — Taliban — are sentencing their mothers who birthed them, their sisters, their wives, their own daughters, to die before their eyes if they become ill,” she added.
Similarly, the representative of France said, “By preventing women from studying medicine, the Taliban have signed a death warrant for many Afghan women.” He added that the new restriction would have devastating consequences for Afghanistan’s future and stability.
During her briefing to the council, Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said that she had “strongly” urged the Taliban to reconsider their stance on female medical education.
She added that the Taliban authorities have persistently pursued their vision of an Islamic system “characterized by unprecedented” restrictions on women and girls.
“It is now approaching nearly 1,200 days without girls having access to formal education beyond sixth grade, with women and girls facing a progressive erasure from almost all walks of life,” she said.
Tom Fletcher, the U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the Security Council meeting that the proposed restriction could cause “serious and lasting damage” to healthcare for Afghan women and girls.
“It would prevent more than 36,000 midwives and 2,800 nurses from entering the workforce in the next few years, and rates of antenatal, neonatal and maternal mortality could dramatically increase,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a joint statement, several Security Council member states, including permanent members like the US, UK, and France, condemned the Taliban’s “systemic gender discrimination,” emphasizing that it could amount to “gender persecution.”
In the statement released on Thursday, they called on the Taliban authorities to immediately halt and reverse their human rights abuses, particularly the discriminatory policies targeting women and girls.
“Such abuses must end. The Taliban must respect Afghanistan’s international obligations and commitments,” they said. “The full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation of women and girls in all aspects of society and public life is indispensable.”
