Women are being stopped by Taliban forces from entering hospitals and health clinics in Nangarhar province if they do not have a male chaperone.
Nangarhar’s morality police, connected to the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, have given the order that women should not visit hospitals without a male companion through local mosques of several districts including Achin, Spin Ghar, Ghanikhel, Kot, Bati Kot, Nazian, Durbaba, Goshta, Kama, Khogyani, Shirzad, and Sorkhrood.
Achin resident Farid told Rukhshana Media that the messages have warned that if anyone disobeys the order, severe punishment awaits them.
“The morality police went to the villages of the district and told the people that their women cannot go to hospitals and health centers without a male escort,” Farid said.
“If anyone disobeys this order, he will be severely punished.”
Kama resident Noor said his district received the same instruction and said that in addition, the Vice and Virtue representatives warned the men to also not leave their wives at hospital unaccompanied.
Noor added that the morality police frequently stop unaccompanied women at Kama health centers asking women to ask about their male companions.
A doctor at a health center in Ghanikhel district, who spoke to Rukhshana Media anonymously, said the Vice and Virtue police are enforcing this order, refusing entry to women without a male companion.
The women are sent home and told them that they must only return for treatment with a male member of their family, the doctor said.
Sorkhrod resident Muska said the recent decision was especially troubling for widows or women whose husbands who are away for work or other reasons.
“Since the Taliban issued this order, women are facing many health problems, and in some hospitals, women have been threatened by the Taliban and told they cannot come without a male chaperone,” Muska said.
“I went to a health center in Sorkhrod and there the Taliban spoke very insultingly to me and the other women who were not accompanied by a male. This shows the weakness of the Taliban who impose all kinds of restrictions on women.”
Sorkhrood resident Zahida was widowed after her military husband was killed by the Taliban. She now takes care of her three young children alone.
She says that the Taliban’s directive in Nangarhar is worrying her and she is thinking about where to take her children for medical treatment when they get sick.
“When I went to the hospital, the Taliban asked me who I came with. I told them that I was a widow and had only three children,” she said.
“They said I was only allowed to enter the health center after I brought a male escort.”
Women in Zahida’s position have said they don’t know where to find male chaperones to be able to get medical treatment for themselves or their children.
A source from Nangarhar’s Vice and Virtue department confirmed on condition of anonymity that they are enforcing this new restriction.
The source said that the order aims to prevent moral corruption in society.
Rukhshana Media has contacted the local Taliban office in Nangarhar for comment several times but has not received a response.
