Taliban in Kandahar Ban Women from Dental Treatment

Photo: Javed Tanveer/AFP

Taliban’s Department for the Promotion of Virtue officials in Kandahar, through a new order, have prohibited male doctors from treating female patients and have threatened to imprison them in case of disobedience. This action, which practically deprives female patients of dental services in the absence of female doctors, has sparked a new wave of concerns about the systematic violation of women’s rights in Afghanistan.

According to local sources, on Wednesday (September 24) officers from the Department for the Promotion of Virtue raided dental clinics in districts two, four and eleven of Kandahar city and expelled female patients from the treatment centers. One of the clinic officials, who did not want his name revealed, said: “It was ten in the morning when the officers came, they expelled the female patients and warned that men no longer have the right to treat women.”

This is not the first time the Taliban have restricted women’s access to health services. Last year, the Taliban’s Department of Invitation and Guidance for Public Health in Kandahar, in an official letter, required female employees to attend health centers only with mandatory hijab and in the accompanied of a male guardian.

Experts say these policies have practically reduced women’s access to treatment to “the minimum possible.” The Afghanistan Analysts Network has warned that the Taliban’s restrictions in the health sector have put the lives of thousands of women and children at risk.

During the recent earthquakes in eastern Afghanistan, preventing women from being treated by male doctors fueled the humanitarian crisis. Reports show that many women and children could not receive vital medical services due to the shortage of female doctors and the Taliban’s restrictions.

The World Health Organization, in a recent report, has also stated that Taliban’s gender discrimination has deprived women of vital health services, especially in earthquake-affected provinces such as Kunar, Nangarhar and Laghman. The organization has warned that the absence of female medical staff and the Taliban’s prevention of women visiting male doctors directly threatens the lives of women and children.

Along with these restrictions, the Taliban have also deprived Afghan women of the right to work, education and travel without a male guardian, a policy which, according to international organizations, is a clear example of “gender apartheid” in the twenty-first century.