{"id":7148,"date":"2026-02-17T15:30:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/2026\/02\/17\/taliban-male-doctors-mahram-female-patients-restrictions-medical-education\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:30:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:30:25","slug":"taliban-male-doctors-mahram-female-patients-restrictions-medical-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/2026\/02\/17\/taliban-male-doctors-mahram-female-patients-restrictions-medical-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Taliban Official Claims Male Doctors Are &#8216;Mahram&#8217; for Female Patients Amid Restrictions on Women&#8217;s Medical Education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hamdullah Namani, the Taliban&#8217;s Minister of Telecommunications, stated in a meeting with doctors in Kabul that male doctors are considered &#8216;mahram&#8217; (permissible guardians) for female patients and are allowed to examine parts of their bodies that are normally off-limits to non-mahram individuals. These remarks come as the Taliban administration continues to bar women from medical training and higher education.<\/p>\n<p>Namani said during the meeting: &#8220;I am a minister, yet in this city, I am not allowed to see a woman&#8217;s face. But for you doctors, this authority has been granted so that when a woman is on your operating table, all her features are before you, and you even have permission to remove her clothing to this extent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This stance is expressed amid the Taliban&#8217;s educational restrictions that have severely reduced women&#8217;s access to health studies and raised concerns about the future of healthcare services. International organizations have warned that continuing these policies could push Afghanistan&#8217;s health system into a new crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Afghanistan has previously faced a shortage of female doctors and female health workers, especially in remote areas. Given cultural barriers in some regions, the lack of female medical staff can further limit female patients&#8217; access to healthcare services\u2014a matter that calls for serious reassessment of the Taliban&#8217;s educational and health policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taliban minister states male doctors are &#8216;mahram&#8217; for female patients amid restrictions on women&#8217;s medical education in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-important-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}