The Taliban has reportedly prohibited women in Afghanistan from participating in nursing and midwifery classes, dealing another blow to women’s rights following their recent rise to power. This recent decree eliminates one of the few opportunities that women had left to receive an education.
“This heartbreaking ruling has shattered the dreams of countless women who aspired to seek education and contribute to their communities,” remarked Manizha Bakhtari, Afghanistan’s ambassador and permanent representative in Austria, in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Afghan nurses hold a newborn boy after delivery in the maternity ward of a hospital as he was born on the auspicious “12.12.12” date in Mazar-i-Sharif on Dec. 12, 2012.
Human Rights Watch noted that the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, issued the decree and it was communicated by the Taliban’s Ministry of Public Health during a meeting with private medical institutions.
More than 23 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023, according to the U.N. The world body also reported that 4 million Afghans were malnourished, including 3.2 million children under the age of 5.
Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where women and girls are banned from secondary and higher education as well as many sectors of the economy and government, according to Human Rights Watch.
The Taliban have reneged on all of their promises they made following their takeover of Kabul to respect the rights of women. In September 2021, shortly after overthrowing the U.S.-backed Afghan Republic, the Taliban barred young girls from attending secondary school after the sixth grade and then banned women from attending higher education in December 2022.
The U.N. and international nongovernmental organizations have urged the Taliban to repeal the directive as well as their other repressive policies toward women.
