The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan's (IEA) decision to bar women from studying in medical institutes will have far-reaching consequences for women's health in the country, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) said on Friday.This is another stage in the removal of women from public and professional life in Afghanistan.
Already, there is an insufficient number of female health care workers in the country, impacting the availability of health care, especially given the separation of hospital wards by gender.
New constraints will further restrict access to quality health care and pose serious dangers to its availability in the future, MSF said in a statement.There is no health care system without educated female health practitioners,& said Mickael Le Paih, MSF's country representative in Afghanistan.
&At MSF, more than 50 percent of our medical staff are women.
The decision to bar women from studying at medical institutes will further exclude them from both education and the impartial provision of health care.The medical needs in Afghanistan are huge, and more female Afghan medical staff need to be trained to address them.
For this to happen, women need to have access to education.
Education restrictions for women and girls put in place in 2024, 2022, and 2021 considerably reduce the number of female medical staff in the future, MSF said.If no girls can attend secondary school, and no women can attend university or medical institutes, where will the female health professionals of the future come from and who will attend to Afghan women when they are at their most vulnerable?& said Le Paih.
&For essential services to be available to all genders, they must be delivered by all genders.Recently, there have been reports that the leader of the Islamic Emirate has ordered the closure of medical institutes to women.
The Islamic Emirate has not yet officially commented on this matter.The post Excluding Afghan women from medical institutes threatens the future of health care in the country: MSF first appeared on Ariana News.