UK statement on Taliban prohibiting women’s medical training

The UK government firmly calls for, in the strongest terms, the Taliban to allow women to access medical education, following recent reports that the Taliban have banned medical education for women and girls in Afghanistan. Courses in nursing, midwifery, and dentistry were some of the few educational pathways still available to women under the Taliban’s oppressive regime, and the government call the prohibition of these “an appalling violation of fundamental human rights.”

The British government urges that this policy will severely undermine the provision of healthcare to women and children, and will have serious long-term implications to the health of many Afghans who will be denied critical medical care in a country with high levels of maternal and infant mortality.

The British government incites the international community to remain united in their first opposition to continued Taliban restrictions, and remain committed in lobbying against this issues. The government has pledged to continue to engage with the woman and girls of Afghanistan, as well as diaspora in the UK, and to ensure their needs and priorities inform British policy and programming.

Finally, the government remind the British public that: “The future of Afghanistan as a country at peace with itself, its neighbours, and the international community, relies on there being human rights for all.”