The Taliban’s Public Health Department in southern Kandahar province has informed female polio vaccinators that they were no longer allowed to take part in vaccination campaigns, local sources said.
Monday, June 27, was the first day of the polio vaccination campaign in Kandahar, and the decision was communicated with female vaccinators in the evening of the same day, according to the first source.
Female vaccinators were going door-to-door to vaccinate children in the past. But the campaign has now become mosque-to-mosque in Kandahar, meaning families bring their children to local mosques for the polio vaccine. Because the female vaccinators aren’t going house-to-house anymore, the Taliban said they are no longer needed, the second source said.
A Taliban health official in Kandahar, who did not want to be named, confirmed the report, saying that the Taliban did not allow female polio workers to take part in the campaign in some areas of Kandahar including Arghandab, Shah Walikot and Maiwand districts.
