Afghanistan: UN Experts Reject ‘Totally Unjustifiable’ Ban On Medical Training For Women

GENEVA (9 December 2024) – UN experts* today expressed alarmed at the latest step reportedly taken by the Taliban to tighten the already draconian ban on education for women and girls in Afghanistan by barring female students from education at medical institutions.

“If implemented, the reported new ban will be yet another inexplicable, totally unjustifiable blow to the health, dignity, and futures of Afghan women and girls. It will constitute yet another direct assault on the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan,” the experts said.

“It will undoubtedly lead to unnecessary suffering, illness, and possibly deaths of Afghan women and children, now and in future generations, which could amount to femicide.”

Only female medics are allowed to provide medical care to girls and women in Afghanistan.

Since retaking control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban has systematically stripped women and girls of their fundamental rights, including the rights to education, work, freedoms of movement and speech, and the right to live free from violence. The reported new ban will further deepen systematic discrimination against women and girls, and further weaken an already fragile healthcare system amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis.

“Maternal and paediatric healthcare in Afghanistan is already in crisis, with high levels of maternal and infant mortality. If implemented the ban would compound this crisis, with profound and long-lasting effects,” the experts said.

They called on the de facto authorities reverse its apparent decision, and on the international community to not remain passive to the Taliban’s ongoing oppressive crackdown on the rights of women and girls.

“The world must unite in solidarity and action with Afghan women and girls to ensure that their fundamental rights are upheld, and that the Taliban are held accountable for their actions.”

*The experts: Richard Bennett, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan; Laura Nyirinkindi (Chair), Claudia Flores (Vice-Chair), Dorothy Estrada Tanck, Ivana Krstić, and Haina Lu, Working group on discrimination against women and girls; Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education; Ms. Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

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