Afghan women told to ‘go home’ after de facto ban on male doctors treating them

The Guardian ^ | Thu 12 Nov 2026 01.00 EST

[BenLurkin]

While there is no publicly announced restriction on male dentists treating women, a ban appears to have spread across the country, according to media reports and interviews with women and doctors by the Guardian and Zan Times. Dentists report that it has been enforced by Taliban security forces, with raids and warnings to male practitioners that they will be imprisoned if female patients are found in their clinics.

In most provinces, male doctors have also received orders and directives from the Taliban instructing them not to examine female patients. The doctors say they are not allowed to examine or provide emergency care to female patients, except under specific conditions – such as the presence of a female patient’s male guardian (mahram), or having certain procedures performed by female nurses.

“We are not allowed to directly examine female patients because we are not their mahram. It makes no difference how simple the procedure is or how critical the patient’s condition may be,” says Samim*, a surgeon who has worked for 15 years in a public hospital in northern Afghanistan.

The escalating bans are reaching new heights of absurdity, with officials in Balkh province in northern Afghanistan banned from calling female patients by their actual names. In May, officials reportedly ordered all hospitals, private practices and clinics to use the word “Bibi” instead of women’s names. They emphasised that this instruction must be observed even on medical prescriptions.

Rahima*, from Kunar province, says one of her relatives, an elderly woman, had to travel hundreds of miles to Kandahar city for dental treatment because her son ran a dental clinic there. The woman’s husband had told her that all the doctors in Kunar knew him, and it would be a source of shame for her to visit a male dentist.

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TOPICS: War on Terror
KEYWORDS: muslimtruth

[alternatives?]

But women in the US will still vote for this as long a abortion is legal until birth.

[hanamizu]

Back in the late 60s I was a Peace Corps ‘Trainee’ scheduled to go to Afghanistan. (Happily, I was ‘deselected’ the day before the rest went to that hell hole). Anyway, we were trained and educated to go into countryside where the mullahs and their ideas ran the place.

Among other things, we learned how to give smallpox vaccinations. We men were told under no circumstances were we to try to vaccinate women. It could lead to our deaths. In fact even making references to or about any female Afghan could lead to serious trouble.

This attitude is traditional Afghan and predates the Taliban.

At the time, Kabul was a completely different place. Women there could wear western clothes, attend university, hold jobs, and even talk to unrelated men. But the king was overthrown and the countryside won out.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

One step backward, followed by two steps backward, ...

[gunnut]

Don’t allow women to get educated so there are no female doctors and male doctors are not allowed to treat women that are not their relatives. That is a formula for success.

[ridesthemiles]

KILL OFF THE WOMEN===

SAVE THE GOATS

[Responsibility2nd]

I wonder if male doctors are allowed to do clitorectomies.

Or if that even requires some degree of medical knowledge?

Just get a rusty razor blade and start hacking away.

[Brian Griffin]

Any comment from the Michigan public health expert?

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Soon the LGBTQAfghan will become universal as there will only be boys, goats or each other left as all other critters will be haram.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Looks like everything is back to normal in Afghanistan. 🙄