Countless Afghan women were seen sobbing as a man read out a Taliban decree banning them from medical care and training in a viral video on social media.
A user on X posted the clip on December 3, which has garnered more than 40,000 views in less than 24 hours.
The caption highlighted the militant movement’s most recent rule and said these decrees “effectively prohibit women from receiving any type of medical care since there will be no female health workers to treat them.”
A video on X depicted Afghan women crying as the most recent ban on their medical education was read out to them
Earlier this week, Taliban authorities allegedly banned medical schools from admitting female students, closing the last educational loophole for all the women and girls in the country.
Male medical professionals will also be off-limits to treat female patients in some provinces. This means Afghan women will be forced to live without healthcare, as there won’t be any female healthcare workers to treat them.
This decree was reportedly issued by Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada at a meeting of the Taliban Ministry of Public Health on Monday, according to VOA.
The matter was not to be discussed in public, and authorities are yet to confirm these reports.
Reactions arose as soon as the news broke out
Afghan women in medical school are heard sobbing as a man announces a new Taliban edict that bans them from medical training.
The Taliban have also banned women from being treated by male medical professionals.
These two decrees, coupled together, effectively prohibit women… pic.twitter.com/wGo1yt7i2r
— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) December 4, 2024
Human rights advocates and other foreign diplomats accused this latest decree of stripping essential healthcare services to millions of women in an already overwhelmingly male-dominated society.
“I am deeply concerned about new reports that the Taliban will deny medical education to women in Afghanistan,” wrote Robert Dickson, the charge d’affaires of Britain’s diplomatic mission to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
He concluded, “This is another affront to women’s right to education and will further restrict access to health care for Afghan women and children.”
A netizen later labeled the new rule as an “unimaginably ignorant barbaric medieval ideology.”
Afghanistan Women and Children Strengthen Welfare Organization also provided their input, stating, “This decision denies countless young women the opportunity to pursue careers in medicine, a field where they have historically played a vital role, particularly in providing healthcare to women and children.
“This ban further cripples Afghanistan’s already fragile healthcare system, which relies heavily on female medical professionals to address the needs of its population.”
According to their statement, the country’s mortality rates are among the highest in the world and the absence of female healthcare workers will have “catastrophic consequences” for women’s health.
This decree comes shortly after a recent devastating ban restricting women’s voices
A little over a month ago, the Taliban implemented a new measure silencing the voices of Afghan women and prohibiting them from hearing one another during prayers.
Taliban minister of the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice Mohammad Khalid Hanafi said in his message, “Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for them to hear.”
To him, a woman’s voice was considered as “awrah,” meaning it had to be concealed from the public.
These new restrictions would be “gradually implemented, and God will be helping us in each step we take,” he said.
Anyone caught breaking these rules would be arrested and put behind bars.
The Taliban was labeled as “horrendous” and “barbaric” by netizens
