Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Rahmanullah Gurbaz urged the Taliban not to stop medical education for women. Cricket News

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Afghanistan cricket legend Rashid Khan was joined by their senior international Mohammad Nabi and current batting sensation Rahmanullah Gurbaz, urging the ruling Taliban to reconsider its ban on women’s medical education – lending to growing resentment about strict restrictions on women’s freedom.

The last straw was this week when the Taliban announced an order banning women from attending institutions that offer medical education. This effectively banned women from nursing and midwifery training. After coming to power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban banned girls from attending secondary school above grade 6 until September of that year. Until December 2022, there was a complete ban on girls and women participating in higher education. However, nursing and midwifery were seen as the final obstacle to an otherwise complete denial of any education to women.

Rashid, the country’s most recognizable face in international sports, with cricket being their biggest mainstream representation at the highest level, was quick to express his dismay at the harshness. In a detailed post in Dari and English on Wednesday, Rashid said: โ€œThe acute shortage of female doctors and nurses is particularly worrying, as it directly affects women’s health care and dignity. Our sisters and mothers need to have access to care provided by medical professionals who understand their needs.”

He pleaded with the Taliban to heed the Quran which “highlights the importance of learning and acknowledges the equal spiritual value of both sexes.”

The 26-year-old further wrote, โ€œEducation occupies a central place in Islamic education, which emphasizes the pursuit of knowledge for both men and women,โ€ adding, โ€œThe country needs professionals in every field, especially in the field of medicine. “

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the order was implemented immediately and many women were withdrawn from their institutes. “Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada issued the order, which was announced at a meeting of the Taliban’s Ministry of Public Health on Monday. The ministry has summoned the directors of private medical training institutions to instruct them on the new order,” according to HRW.

Afghanistan imposes complete restrictions on women’s freedom of movement and speech, ability to work and participation in public life, prohibiting women from going to the gym or walking in the park.

However, access to healthcare was severely compromised due to other prevailing restrictions in the country. HRW wrote, “The Taliban has also banned women from being treated by male medical professionals in some provinces, meaning that this new order, preventing the training of new female health workers, will cause unnecessary pain, suffering, illness and death. Women are forced to live without healthcare, Because there are no female health workers to treat them.

Rashid’s senior teammate and former captain Nabi also took to social media to raise the issue: “The Taliban’s decision to ban girls from studying medicine is not only heartbreaking, but deeply unjust. Giving girls the chance to learn and serve their people is a betrayal of both their dreams and the future of our nation.” Let our daughters study, raise and build a better Afghanistan for all. It is their right and our duty to protect it.โ€

Opener Rahmanullah offered subtle support, writing only in Pashto on X/Twitter, expressing his views on seeking knowledge by quoting an “honorable hadith” (as a verse, guidance). Asking for mercy for those who hate the growth of knowledge by the followers of Islam, Gurbaz quoted: “Seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim (man or woman).”

By Wednesday, concerns had grown since the ordinance came into effect. National Public Radio (NPR) quoted Pashtana Durrani, founder of Learn Afghanistan – an organization that runs secret schools and maternal health clinics where midwives are trained – as saying, “What they’re doing now is closing any loopholes. People are mostly women under the Taliban. They say they are left to reproduce. Well, now with this new ban, women are left to reproduce and then die at that table because there will be no one to help them .โ€

Afghanistan’s women’s cricket team has sought asylum in Australia and has been inactive since August 2021, but the International Cricket Council has allowed the men’s team to continue playing, despite funding rules requiring full members to field a women’s team. The national men’s cricket team has inspired a huge following around the world and brought joy and pride to the Afghan identity in the war-torn nation, but women’s freedom has increasingly fallen behind.

Male cricketers have been silent until now (and living under ban), however, decided to speak out on Wednesday, fearing medical tragedies and compounding pain and suffering, and the possibility of death. NPR wrote that Afghanistan “has become one of the most dangerous places in the world for a woman to give birth. According to a December 2023 statement by the UN Secretary-General’s spokesman, Stรฉphane Dujarric, a woman dies every two hours in Afghanistan from complications related to childbirth.

The international outcry expanded into formal action this week when, according to NPR, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, said he could announce that “very significant progress has already been made in the investigation of allegations of sexual harassment in Afghanistan. I am confident that I will soon have concrete results.” I will be in a position to announce.”

HRW researcher Fereshta Abbasi, quoted by NPR, said, “Khan’s statement is believed to indicate that he will soon request an application for an arrest warrant for Taliban officials.”

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