It has been five years since women and girls in Afghanistan have been among the primary targets of the Taliban regime. Their rights to go to school, go to work, and even leave their homes have been taken away. A direct consequence of these restrictions is a crumbling health system, under pressure from a lack of female medical professionals, Taliban restrictions, and funding cuts that threaten to keep health facilities open.
One of the first Taliban orders was to ban women from pursuing higher education and to ban all girls from attending school beyond grade six. According to UNICEF, more than 2.6 million girls do not have access to education as a result of the Taliban’s ban. Other edicts target women’s freedom of movement, including restrictions that prevent women from leaving their homes or going to health clinics without a male family member. These edicts have built on one another to the point where Afghanistan’s education and health systems are being systematically dismantled. The pipeline that once supplied the workforce with trained and skilled professionals is disappearing, creating major long-term consequences for the health system and the country’s workforce.
Due to this dismantled pipeline, Afghanistan is facing one of the worst shortages of female medical professionals. In Helmand, Zabul, and Uruzgan provinces, it is reported that there are no female medical professionals. There are only three female specialists in Kandahar, a neighboring province to Helmand. In addition to specialists, other female healthcare workers that Afghanistan’s health system depends on, such as midwives and nurses, have been forced out of their jobs because of Taliban restrictions. And because of restrictions on movement, Afghan women are also unable to visit health facilities and obtain treatment, according to a February 2026 report by UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett.
The cost of the ban on education and the removal of women from the workforce also has a deep and lasting economic impact. It is estimated that this will cost Afghanistan $84 million per year. But beyond the economic impact, the immediate human consequences are even more urgent. Infant and maternal mortality have risen back to some of the highest levels seen since the Taliban took over.
The lack of specialists, and in some areas any female healthcare workers at all, means that women are facing a painful reality. An Afghan from Helmand shared, “We take patients from one doctor to another without success and eventually have to go elsewhere.”
Manizha, a medical doctor whose name has been changed for her safety, is part of one of the few medical teams still providing care to Afghan women. She sees women who would otherwise have no access to healthcare, with her team traveling to them. Her team originally started with fourteen members, but has since decreased to seven, as many of her colleagues were unable to find male guardians to accompany them to work, compounded by financial hardships.
With decreasing staff and an increasing health burden, the situation is dire. Even as Manizha faces enormous challenges, she remains hopeful: “Whenever I remember the smiles, the tears, and even the deprivation of the women I have visited over the years, I tell myself that I must not give up. They need even the little that I can do for them.”
Afghanistan’s healthcare system is collapsing because the foundation of a skilled labor force including women is collapsing. By excluding women from education, employment, and public life, the Taliban are not only denying women their rights today; they are dismantling the pipeline needed to train the healthcare professionals Afghanistan will need tomorrow. The result is a health system that is losing its existing female workforce while failing to produce the next generation of women professionals to serve their communities.
Sources: Feminist Majority Foundation, Afghanistan International, United Nations, UNICEF, Rukhshana