Women Health Right in Afghanistan

Written by: Wahida Sabir

Health services are free in Afghanistan but some people in this country do not allow their daughters, sisters or wives to go a doctor or a clinic for treatment. This issue causes some problems for women and girls.

AEPO’s writer/producer has talked to some women and girls about this issue.

A woman from Farza district, Kabul province says: “I am suffering from stomach ache, high blood pressure and body ache and I do not have a child yet and my husband does not let me go to a doctor or a clinic for treatment.”

A woman from Paktia province says: “My young daughter became sick and her father did not take to the doctor. I took her to a Mullah but he did nothing. Now she has problems with her hearing.”

A girl, a resident of Nijrab district, Kapisa province says: “I was suffering from malaria and typhoid but my father did not treat me and now I have lost my sight and I could not. I became very weak and still my father does not allow me to go to the hospital for treatment.”

Doctor Habibullah Hikmat, an internist at Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital, Kabul city says: “If a mother or her daughter is suffering from a contiguous disease, for example if they are suffering from tuberculosis and if the head of the family does not allow them for treatment, the disease would spread to the whole family and if a pregnant woman is not allowed to go to the hospital for delivering the baby, she might lose her and her baby lives.”

Why some men do not allow their females members of their families to go to the doctor?

A woman from Paghman district, Kabul province says: “my husband prevents me and my daughters from going to a doctor and he says that going of women to a man doctor is shameful for them.”

Khan Agha, a resident of Istalif district, Kabul province says: “Lack of awareness of the health right of women and girls causes that some husbands, fathers, and brothers to not let their wives, daughters or sisters go to the clinic or a doctor for treatment.”

How could people find a solution to this issue?

A woman from Shakardara district, Kabul province says: “If I suffer from a minor sickness and if my husband is at home, he takes me to the doctor otherwise he allows me to go to the clinic alone.”

Manizha, a resident of Qarabagh district, Kabul province says: “if I get sick, my brothers allow me to go the doctor for treatment.”

Mihrullah, the Imam of Abdullah Ansar Masjid, Khair Khana area, 11th district, Kabul city says: “Health is an essential part of a woman's alimony, its wife’s right on her husband to pay attention to his wife’s health. A daughter is entitled to pay alimony by her father or brothers before her marriage.  Whether the doctor is a man or a woman, it is stated in Islamic jurisprudence (if necessary) there is no restriction if the doctor is a male specialist to whom the woman is going.”

Amanullah Ahmadzai, a law professor at Kabul University says: “The civil law of Afghanistan states that a husband should pay attention to the health of his wife, especially during pregnancy. If a husband divorces his wife, he has to pay her alimony during her Iddah (a period of waiting in which a woman must observe after the death of her husband or after a divorce, during which she may not marry another man) which includes health right.”