KABUL: Senior employees at several institutions offering nursing and midwifery courses in Afghanistan on Tuesday said women would be barred from classes, following an unwritten edict by the Taliban supreme leader.

An official from the public health ministry, who was not authorised to speak to the media, disclosed that health officials met directors of education institutes on Monday in the capital Kabul to inform them of the ruling.

“There is no official letter but the directors of institutes were informed in a meeting that women and girls can’t study anymore in their institutes,” he said. “They were not provided with any details and justification and were just told of the order of the supreme leader and were asked to implement it.”

The manager of an institute who attended the meeting said dozens of managers were in attendance.

A senior employee of another centre said his boss had been at a separate meeting with health officials on Tuesday after confusion about the rule. The employee said institutes had been given 10 days to hold final exams.

Some managers petitioned the ministry for clarity, while others carried on as normal in the absence of a written order.

Afghanistan has around 10 public and over 150 private health institutes offering two-year diplomas in 18 subjects, ranging from midwifery to anaesthesia, pharmacy and dentistry, with a total of 35,000 women students, health ministry sources said.

Not long after Taliban authorities swept back to power in 2021, they barred girls from education beyond secondary school as part of restrictions labelled “gender apartheid” by the UN.

Women students then flocked to health institutes, one of the few avenues still open to them. They now make up the majority of students in these centres.

“What are we supposed to do with just 10 per cent of our students?” one manager said.

Aysha — not her real name — a midwifery teacher at a private institute in Kabul, said she received a message from management, telling her not to come to work until further notice with little explanation. “This is a big shock for us. Psychologically, we are shaken,” the 28-year-old said.

“This was the only source of hope for the girls and women who were banned from universities.”

The UK’s charge d’affaires said he was “deeply concerned” by the reports. “This is another affront to women’s right to education and will further restrict access to healthcare for Afghan women and children,” he posted on social media platform X.

The health ministry source said the ban would squeeze an already suffering health sector. “We are already short of professional medical and para-medical staff and this would result in further shortages.”

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2024