Reports: Taliban Restricts Afghan Women From Receiving Care From Male Doctors

The Taliban has reportedly imposed an unofficial ban on male health professionals treating women in Afghanistan, according to accounts from Afghan patients and medical workers. The restrictions apply to medical and dental care, and doctors could be arrested for treating female patients, according to testimonies reported by The Guardian and Zan Times.

Doctors and dentists say they are not allowed to examine women or provide emergency care unless a woman is accompanied by a male guardian, known as a mahram, or a nurse can perform the procedure. One doctor who has worked for 15 years at a public hospital in northern Afghanistan said he could not examine female patients directly because he was not their mahram, regardless of how simple the procedure was or how critical the patient’s condition had become.

In Balkh province and some other areas, doctors have reportedly been barred since May from addressing female patients by name. Instead, they are instructed to use “Bibi,” a title used to refer to women in the country, including on medical prescriptions.

The restrictions come as the Taliban has barred women from studying medicine since 2024. Women who had already qualified as doctors have lost their jobs, with the regime also reportedly prohibiting hospitals from hiring female staff. Women who work are required to have a mahram, such as a father or husband, accompany them whenever they leave home.

The testimonies reported by the newspapers conflict with comments made by Hamdullah Nomani, the communications minister. At a meeting with doctors in Kabul in February, Nomani said male doctors would be considered mahrams when treating female patients. He said doctors had been given special religious authority in clinical settings, adding that they could examine patients and access areas of the body that others were not permitted to see. Nomani also urged doctors to use that authority safely.