Herat – Afghan people have been suffering from many problems in all facets of life, including in health services. The Taliban allow female doctors only to treat female patients and male doctors only to treat male patients. This ban both victimizes patients and prevents doctors from treating patients. Afghanistan’s third-largest city Herat has just one government-run hospital and not more than two private hospitals. Patients wait for hours to see a doctor in the government-run hospital.

The NuJINHA team visited the hospital and spoke to some patients waiting to see a doctor for hours. Jamila Wahab was one of them. Her daughter-in-law suffered from a toothache. “We came here at eight o'clock in the morning from the district of Injil. Now, it is noon but we have not seen a doctor yet,” she told us.

At the hospital, patients wait hours to see a doctor for two reasons, one reason is the high number of patients and the second one is the ban imposed on doctors.

Ş.S. is the cardiologist at the hospital. “I know that the Taliban are ignorant. They practice their derisive policies in the health sector, too,” said Ş.S., who asked us not to share her name due to security reasons.

Ş.S. is one of the female doctors, who are allowed only to treat female patients. “I am the only cardiologist at the hospital. I am not allowed to treat male patients. To me, there is no difference between male and female patients. My duty is to save human lives. As doctors, we tried to explain this to the Taliban; however, they cannot understand. All the doctors of the hospital decided to treat both female and male patients at any cost because our duty is to save human lives.”