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Afghanistan's foremost OB-GYN says the country is experiencing a maternal health crisis

By
Imtiaz Tyab
Imtiaz Tyab
Senior foreign correspondent
Imtiaz Tyab is a CBS News senior foreign correspondent based in London and reports for all platforms, including the "CBS Evening News," "CBS Mornings," "CBS Sunday Morning" and CBS News 24/7. He has extensive experience reporting from major global flashpoints, including the Middle East and the war on terror.
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Imtiaz Tyab

/ CBS News

Kabul — Dr. Najmussama Shefajo is probably Afghanistan's best known and most experienced OB-GYN.

She became a household name from her regular appearances on Afghan television, where she talked openly about women's reproductive health, a subject still considered taboo in Afghanistan.

Over the past decade, CBS News has made several visits to her private clinic in central Kabul, but it has never looked as busy as it does now.

Her clinic was flooded with new patients after the Taliban banned women from nursing and midwife training courses back in December. It's a move that has started to take its toll on Shefajo, who told CBS News she has been suffering from migraines for quite some time "because of the tension."

"I see my patients are very poor, they cannot pay, I cannot help them, and all the pressure comes on me and I get a headache," Shefajo said.

Still, Shefajo has remained a committed teacher. She found a way to get around the Taliban's education ban for her student nurses and midwives by giving them all jobs at her clinic.

This means they are technically no longer students, but employees, even as she continues to train them.

She says that if the current policies remain in place though, the situation in Afghanistan will worsen.

"The previous doctors, midwives, nurses are getting older and older and they will die," Shefajo said. "Who will provide services?"

Following the U.S. withdrawal and immediately after taking power in 2021, the Taliban also banned girls over the age of 12 from attending school. But the results of such a health care shortage could be catastrophic, Shefajo believes. 

Under Taliban rule, women and girls can only be treated by female doctors. Male doctors can only treat women when a male guardian is present. 

"For sure the number of deaths will be increasing, and one day there will not be female in Afghanistan," Shefajo said.

An Afghanistan without women — the Taliban insists that is not what its policies are aimed at.

In the courtyard outside her clinic, CBS News tried to ask some of the husbands, fathers and guardians what they thought about the Taliban's ban on maternal health education for women, but no one wanted to talk.

Shefajo said her message to the Taliban is to rescind the policy on women's health education.

"As a doctor, as a mother, as a woman, as a Muslim, I request them…to give a chance for the female to help you to build the country."

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