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Afghanistan’s greatest cricketer Rashid Khan was joined by their senior most international Mohammad Nabi and current batting sensation Rahmanullah Gurbaz in urging the ruling Taliban to reconsider their ban on women’s medical education – lending their heft to growing discontent about stringent curbs on freedom of women.
This week was the last straw as the Taliban announced a decree forbidding women from attending institutions offering medical education. It effectively bans women from nursing and midwifery training. After coming to power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban had barred girls from attending secondary school beyond Class 6 by September of same year. By December 2022, there was a complete ban on girls and women from attending higher education. However, nursing and midwifery were seen as the final loophole left in an otherwise absolute denial of any education to women.
Rashid, the country’s most-recognisable face in international sport, with cricket being their biggest mainstream representation at the highest level, was quick to voice his dismay on the rigid stricture. In a detailed post on Wednesday, written in Dari and English languages, Rashid said: “The acute shortage of female doctors and nurses is particularly concerning, as it directly impacts the healthcare and dignity of women. It is essential for our sisters and mothers to have access to care provided by medical professionals who truly understand their needs.”
🤲🏻🤲🏻🇦🇫🇦🇫 pic.twitter.com/rYtNtNaw14
— Rashid Khan (@rashidkhan_19) December 4, 2024
He pleaded with the Taliban to pay heed to the Quran which “highlights the importance of learning and acknowledges the equal spiritual worth of both genders.”
The 26-year-old further wrote, “Education holds a central place in Islamic teachings, emphasising the pursuit of knowledge for both men and women,” while stressing that, “the country desperately needs professionals in every field, especially the medical sector.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) quoted that the order came into immediate effect, and several women were turned back from their institutes. “The Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, issued this order, which was announced at a meeting of the Taliban Ministry of Public Health on Monday. The ministry summoned directors of private medical training institutions to be instructed about the new order,” according to HRW.
Afghanistan has steadily imposed absolute restrictions on women’s freedom of movement and speech, their ability to work and participation in public life, with women barred from going to the gym or for a walk in a park.
However, access to health care was severely jeopardized as the country has other prevalent restrictions. HRW wrote, “Taliban have also banned women in some provinces from being treated by male medical professionals, which means that this new decree, halting the training of new female healthcare workers, will result in unnecessary pain, misery, sickness, and death for the women forced to go without health care, as there won’t be female healthcare workers to treat them.”
Rashid’s senior teammate and former captain Nabi also raised the issue on social media: “The Taliban’s decision to ban girls from studying medicine is not only heartbreaking but deeply unjust. Denying girls the chance to learn and serve their people is a betrayal of both their dreams and our nation’s future. Let our daughters study, grow, and build a better Afghanistan for everyone. This is their right, and it is our duty to protect it.”
— Mohammad Nabi (@MohammadNabi007) December 4, 2024
Opener Rahmanullah lent subtle support, writing only in Pashto on X/Twitter, expressing his views on seeking knowledge by quoting an “honourable hadith” (verse, as guidance). Asking for mercy for those who hate increase in knowledge by followers of Islam, Gurbaz quoted: “Seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim (male or female).”
اقْرَاْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّک الَّذِي خَلَقَ
ای بنده ولوله د خپل هغه ربَ په نام چې تاسو یې پیدا کړي یاست
وقل ربي زِدْنِي عِلمًا
او ووايه اى ربه زما علم زيات كره
(قران كريم)
طَلَبُ العِلمِ فَرِيضَةٌ عَلى كُلِّ مُسلِمٍ ومُسلِمَة تعليم بر تولو مسلمانانو
(نر او ښځې )فرض ده
(حديث شريف)— Rahmanullah Gurbaz (@RGurbaz_21) December 4, 2024
Concerns had heightened through Wednesday after the decree came into effect. National Public Radio (NPR) quoted Pashtana Durrani, founder of Learn Afghanistan – an organization operating secret schools as well as maternal health clinics where midwives would be trained – as saying, “All they are doing now is closing any loopholes. People often say that under the Taliban women are just left to reproduce. Well, now with this new ban, women are left to reproduce and then die on that same table because there will be nobody to help them. That’s what it has come to.”
Afghanistan’s women’s cricket team have sought refuge in Australia and have been inactive since August 2021, but the International Cricket Council have permitted the men’s team to carry on playing, even if funding rules mandate that full members are obliged to field women’s teams. While the national men’s cricket team has inspired tremendous following around the world and brought joy and pride to the Afghan identity in the war-ravaged nation, the backsliding of women’s freedom has only worsened.
The men’s cricketers hitherto silent (and living under restrictions), however, decided to speak out on Wednesday, fearing medical tragedies and compounding pain and suffering, and likelihood of deaths. NPR wrote that Afghanistan has been “one of the most dangerous places in the world for a woman to give birth. According to a December 2023 statement from Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General, a woman dies every two hours across Afghanistan in birth-related complications.”
International outrage extended to formal action this week when, according to NPR, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, said he could announce that “very considerable progress has already been made in the investigation of allegations of gender persecution in Afghanistan. I am confident that I will soon be in a position to announce concrete results.”
HRW researcher Fereshta Abbasi, NPR quoted, “believes that Khan’s statement indicates that he would ‘soon request applications for arrest warrants’ for Taliban officials.”
