Mariam finished her midwifery studies in 2021, just as the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan, but she wasn’t even able to receive her certificate. “They wouldn’t allow us students to receive our diplomas at a graduation ceremony. They left us out of the picture. And that’s still the case today,” she explains to this newspaper. Mariam, who prefers to use a pseudonym for this interview, has also been unable to practice a single day due to the edicts issued by the de facto authorities, despite the urgent need for midwives in her country.
According to UNICEF, only 66% of women in Afghanistan currently give birth with skilled personnel present. Furthermore, although official data is limited, maternal mortality in 2024 reached 638 deaths per 100,000 live births, and neonatal mortality reached 24 deaths per 1,000 live births — figures among the highest in the world, according to the UN.
From Spain, it’s impossible to understand our fear and our feeling of suffocation, which gets worse every day
Fariba, resident of Herat
These figures are just a small example of the impact that the restrictions imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2021 are having on the physical and mental health of women. “The cumulative effect of these policies has been to deliberately design and implement a system that denies essential healthcare to women and girls,” summarized the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, in a report presented in late February in Geneva, dedicated to the health of Afghan women. “These are regressive measures that cannot be justified by either a lack of resources or cultural reasons,” he insisted.
Most of the injustices and abuses that underpin Bennett’s report have never made the news. A woman giving birth at a hospital door because she has no male companion and is denied entry; sick Afghan women turned away because there are no male doctors; or a mother watching her baby die because she is refused admission to a clinic due to her clothing being deemed inappropriate.
“I have friends living in rural areas who have to travel miles to find a medical center with a doctor or a nurse. It doesn’t matter if they’re sick and weak,” Fariba, who lives in Herat and couldn’t finish her studies to become a dentist, explains to this newspaper. Her non-negotiable condition for speaking with EL PAÍS is that her real name not be published. “From Spain, it’s impossible to understand our fear and our feeling of suffocation, which gets worse every day,” adds this 25-year-old.
They wouldn’t allow us students to receive our diplomas at a graduation ceremony. They left us out of the picture. And that’s still the case today.
Mariam, Afghan midwife
Fewer female doctors, higher maternal mortality
In December 2024, the Taliban decreed that women could no longer attend centers offering medical and healthcare training. The ban abruptly ended years of study and professional aspirations for thousands of women, who saw this sector as one of the few remaining pockets of the labor market where the doors had not yet been closed to them.
“It is completely unjustifiable and, unless reversed, will lead to unnecessary suffering, illness and death, and could amount to femicide,” the rapporteur added.
Claudio Miglietta, representative of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Afghanistan, explained to this newspaper that “recruiting qualified Afghan female medical personnel has become increasingly difficult for some of their projects” in the country. According to Bennett’s report, women currently represent 27% of general practitioners, 18% of specialists, and 29% of nurses. These figures will continue to decline as female healthcare workers retire, leave the country, or simply give up on going to work every day.
“We are not allowed to speak to hospital guards, drivers, or men in general unless absolutely necessary. If we do, intelligence officials come and interrogate us. The first time, they issue a warning; the second time, we will be dismissed from our job,” a health worker from Helmand province details in the UN report.
Accompanied and wearing a burqa
“The Taliban’s violations of the right to health illustrate the complex and interconnected system of gender oppression currently in place in Afghanistan. These violations can be described as gender apartheid,” Bennett insists, calling for this systematic persecution of women to be codified as a crime against humanity “to ensure full recognition of the unique and transgenerational harm suffered by survivors.”
Since 2021, the Taliban have issued more than 130 edicts that progressively erase women from society, deprive them of education from the age of 12, and treat them as inferior beings without rights, even over their own bodies. The latest measure was a new penal code approved earlier this year that normalizes corporal punishment and establishes near-total impunity for abusive men. According to UN Women, 80% of Afghan women are now excluded from the workforce and education.
Within this grim context, Mariam even feels fortunate. “Compared to rural areas, life in Kabul is slightly better because there is more reporting of what happens here, and although there are many restrictions, women can still be seen by some male doctors and receive treatment,” she explains.
Fariba, speaking from Herat, explains that her family can still afford to go to a private hospital, where the rules are less strict and there are more female doctors working, but she knows she is privileged. “But in the more remote areas, the Taliban manage to enforce these rules in hospitals, aided also by families who don’t allow their wives or daughters to be examined by a male doctor,” she adds.
In November 2025, the de facto authorities of her city, Herat, banned women from entering public hospitals if they did not comply with dress rules and were not accompanied by a mahram, or male escort.
For women and girls, these cuts are turning an oppressive environment into a large-scale health catastrophe
Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapportuer
“I myself saw how they beat women at the hospital doors and wouldn’t let them in. Days later, the Taliban said it wasn’t true, that they had never established that rule, but it was because it was reported in the press,” Fariba says.
Fariba and Mariam also recall that most of the female doctors were not allowed to travel to the areas affected by the earthquake last September, and that meant that some injured women died waiting to be treated by a woman.
And all this is compounded by the reduction in the volume of international funds allocated to development aid, which particularly penalizes countries like Afghanistan, where the system was already extremely fragile and dependent on international support.
“For women and girls, these cuts are turning an oppressive environment into a large-scale health catastrophe,” Bennett said, urging the international community to “reverse these policies.”
Miglietta, from MSF, explains that, due to these funding cuts, some health centers or dispensaries have closed, and this puts additional pressure on organizations like hers, “which often face a demand for healthcare that exceeds their capacity to respond.”
In 2025, the UN presented the international community with a $2.4 billion humanitarian response plan to assist approximately 16 million Afghans out of a total population of 45 million. The funds were intended to provide food, health services, and education, but only 40% of the requested amount was actually raised. The UN has outlined a plan for 2026 with a budget of $1.71 billion.
Bennett stated that he shared his report with the de facto authorities, who are not recognized by the international community, and requested their opinion, but received no response. The Taliban believe they do respect women’s rights, based on their interpretation of Islamic law.
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