By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – Independent UN human rights experts on Monday have condemned the Taliban’s recent step to tighten the draconian ban on education for women and girls in Afghanistan by barring female students from education at medical institutions.
The experts said that the restriction came at a critical time, as Afghanistan continues to struggle with an ongoing humanitarian crisis and a fragile healthcare infrastructure.
The ban threatens to severely impact Afghanistan’s healthcare system, where only female medical professionals are permitted to treat women and girls.
“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,” the experts said .
They described it as “a direct assault on the rights of women and girls”.
Taliban has systemically stripped women and girls of their fundamental rights, including freedoms of movement and speech and the right to live free from violence since taking control in August 2021.
The experts warned that this decision could lead to “unnecessary suffering, illness, and possibly deaths of Afghan women and children and now in future generations, which could amount to femicide”.
Afghanistan suffers from one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. This latest restriction threatens to create a devastating healthcare consequence for future generations of Afghan women and children.
The experts noted that “maternal and paediatric healthcare in Afghanistan is already in crisis, with high levels of maternal and infant mortality”.
They have urged immediate action from the international community, calling for unity “in solidarity and action with Afghan women and girls”.
The experts emphasized that the Taliban are held “accountable for their actions”.
“The world must unite in solidarity and action with the Afghan women and girls to ensure that their fundamental rights are upheld and that the Taliban are held accountable for their actions,” they declared.
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