Taliban ban women from nursing and midwifery training

[claratheskivvy]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy3l1035nlo.amp

Women have now been banned from attending their nursing and midwifery courses at university.

Female patients are only allowed to be attended to by a female unless accompanied by their male escort. This means that thousands of women will now be giving birth by themselves if they can't find a midwife, which are already in short supply. Afghanistan has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the world.

You've played Devil's advocate really badly by assuming all manner of things without looking into what is going on in Afghanistan. I'm no expert on the region but I know (via PBS) that even before the Taliban took hold of the country again they had serious issues with lack of medical staff. 4.6 medical doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 people. The international threshold for critical shortage is 23 per 10,000 people.

It's difficult to get current numbers but it's probably safe to assume that even if numbers have improved they won't have reached the threshold for critical shortage or even close. Lots of people have to travel miles to get to health clinics. If you're a woman and there is no man to take you you're stuck. If you're a woman giving birth at home and there are complications and no man around you may well die. That's the reality and it will not be solved by an Devil's advocacy. More women will die as a result of the latest dictat. It's not that the doctors and nurses and midwives are lacking in skill it's that there aren't enough of them and that hospitals are lacking in many of the things that make things safer for those of us lucky enough to live in richer countries who care about the health of all of their population.

This has nothing to do with women being trained in medicine so stopping them being trained will improve nothing and will in fact make it worse by taking more people out of healthcare and by making many women patients reluctant to seek help if there is no chance of them seeing a woman medic. It is a nightmare for both the health and the freedom of women and there is no other way of looking at it that has any moral worth.

Excellent post. Thank you.

I believe that a small number of Afghan women have been taken into training as doctors in Scotland recently. I don’t have a link.

Well. Do you think they'll go back to practice in Afghanistan after they qualify?

If they don’t have nurses then men will die too. And plenty of male babies. How thick can you get?
What’s their excuse for this then?

It sounds like sadism being free and running the country.

This is the headline stuff goodness knows what actual horror is going on. To remove and ban midwives is pure sadistic fantasy.

I expect not 😥

This! It's horrendous & shameful that western governments have allowed this to happen following their withdrawal!

This isn't back to the dark ages. This is worse than the dark ages. Midwifery existed then.

I don’t even know what to say.

And how many men are now going to be trained as midwives and fill this gap..

also I don’t know what to say

A family friend is in Afghanistan he is finishing his last hospital rotations to qualify to become a Dr. One of these rotations is obg He will tell me what it is like Everyday he tells me about how bad it is there.

He is also wanted by the Taliban because of Facebook message criticising them before they came back so he only goes to the hospital by car and if no money walks but only after dark The Taliban have been to his uncle house looking for him several times family have hid him one uncle was killed because he was not able to get to Kabul airport in time to get on an emergency plane (he worked with British Army )

He is often hungry a boiled egg is a treat
poverty is very bad there our family is supporting him as his extended family can no longer afford to keep him and chucked him out
I asked him why the men are not standing up to the Taliban He told me the men that have stood up against them have been taken away and never seen again many men are the only man in the extended family so need to work long hours and if they are taken away the women are not able to support themselves and family would only have the money from boys begging Another reason it makes women more vulnerable to the Taliban because women can be taken by Taliban as wives. It’s better for men to keep their head down and support women with underhand ways buying books teaching their daughters or sisters to read and write

Afghans overseas have set up an online university courses include medicine,midwife training and nursing.

women still go to hospitals and in the department he was working in male drs did treat women and but at great risk to themselves

Taliban and religious people don’t tend to use hospitals Taliban do not see

Also he told me it’s too dangerous to say anything negative about Taliban because you can’t trust people because you never know if they are a spy

If all goes well next month he will be able to leave and start a new life and his physical and mental health will mend. He is very depressed but keeps going because he the eldest of 9 and wants to make sure his siblings get an education His parents and siblings live in Pakistan sadly he has not seen them for over 3 years because he is not able to visit them

This doesn't look true to me. Seems just stories or exaggerations.
I mean why on earth would they do such a thing. Even if someone thinks of women less than animals. Doesn't add up.

😥Oh my goodness

Do they have male nurses there?

Your point about British women who "would have loved an escort to see what actually goes on" is nonsense, and I'm not even sorry for calling it out as such, because you clearly haven't taken a moment to even think about what you're saying, and that's offensive.

Fathers have attended births in England for many decades. Most women therefore have a "male guardian" present at birth already. I've never heard of anyone who was made to give birth in a secret room while their husband was kept away.

I don't know whether you have the idea that a "male escort" is some kind of impartial supervisor, or chaperone? It's literally just a male relative, there to prevent the "indecency" of their womenfolk being alone with unrelated males. If male relatives were such a great protection against medical malpractice, surely (by your logic) the Taliban would be encouraging them to attend midwife-led births, rather than doubling up with a male doctor.

Yes male nurses

It's absolutely true. A midwifery student was interviewed on BBC radio 4 news at lunchtime today. She was anonymous of course. You could hear the desperation in her voice.

The Taliban don't want women associating with any man outside the family even in a life-threatening emergency.

The stories are true Afghans are living in hell

my friend tells me that the Taliban are making a film to show why women education is wrong but not sure how they show it as Tv is now banned from last month

Was she the one who was teaching women English? I was nearly in tears listening to her.

This is inhumanly cruel. Those poor women.

It’s absolutely disgusting what is happening to women and girls in Afghanistan. What can we do?

there are still female drs in Kabul and they are only allowed to treat woman including surgery however there are not as many as needed

So the Taliban regard woman as subhuman. Purely a vessel for sex and child birth. Maybe a bit of servitude thrown in. They are married at God knows what age, become pregnant, birth at home with no assistance and either live or die. If they live, rinse and repeat. If they die they are replaced as a broken fridge would be and the cycle repeats. No friends, no education, no autonomy at all. There are no words.