Afghanistan’s tumultuous history has hurt the nation’s women the hardest.

Already suffering from the fallout of war and poverty, women’s rights took a further hit when the Taliban took power in 2021 and women were banned from going to school, having jobs and even accessing basic healthcare.

The nation was named the most dangerous country to be female, by a 2011 poll by the Thomson-Reuters Foundation and today, women are still routinely discriminated against, abused and persecuted. They are banned from universities and charity jobs. Violence is common.

Pregnancy is hugely dangerous in Afghanistan. But a new trainee midwife programme that has been spearheaded by the U.N. Refugee Agency with a local NGO could change that.

The programme sees young women train for two years in the provincial capital hospital, after which they will return home to help the women in the community.

One 21-year-old trainee says: ‘Our society is facing many problems in terms of healthcare. Even with the new generation of technology, we are still witnessing mothers and children dying.

‘This situation motivated me to study the midwifery course in order to serve my people.’

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