KABUL, Afghanistan — Nearly 40,000 midwives and 3,000 nurses were deprived of completing their training in Afghanistan last year due to orders from the Taliban, according to a United Nations report covering October to December 2024.
The report highlighted the grave consequences of the Taliban’s restrictions on education and training for women in the health sector.
The reports quotes Indrika Ratwatte, UN deputy envoy in Afghanistan, as saying that 36,000 midwives and 3,000 nurses were in training and that if this is stopped in private and public medical institutes, these people will not graduate, and that means they will not be able to go to communities in Afghanistan to help women and girls.
He said that the ban will have a direct impact on their health and well-being.
The report also detailed increasing restrictions on female health workers. In some provinces, women have been required by Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (PVPV) inspectors to be accompanied by a mahram, or male chaperone, while commuting to and from work.
The Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied this claim, stating: “The issue of ‘mahram’ is clarified in the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue, Prohibition of Vice, and Hearing of Complaints Law. Nothing like this has been done.”
However, the report documented instances where PVPV inspectors enforced such restrictions. In Kandahar Province in December, inspectors instructed a local restaurant to bar entry to women without a mahram and ensure no intermingling between unrelated men and women.
The report also revealed additional arbitrary restrictions imposed by PVPV inspectors, including barring women without a mahram from entering health clinics, shops, markets, and restaurants in certain provinces.
In November, PVPV inspectors in Kabul visited a private hospital and directed female nurses to stop working in the emergency ward, instructing them to work only in areas designated for women, such as gynecology.
The report highlighted the Taliban’s ongoing suppression of girls’ education. In Paktya and Nangarhar provinces, local education departments instructed schools and NGOs running Accelerated Learning Programs to halt classes for girls indefinitely, while boys’ classes continued.
Taliban have also restricted women’s access to work and public life. In October, women were prohibited from participating in the Ganjina Afghanistan National Exhibition held in Khost City, where only male exhibitors were permitted to showcase their products.
