The U.S. government condemned the Taliban on Wednesday for reportedly ordering the suspension of medical education for women and girls in Afghanistan. In August, the Taliban published vice laws that ban women’s voices and bare faces in public in an effort to completely erase Afghan women and girls from public life. Medical education, including nursing and midwifery, was one of the only forms of education still available to women in the country. “These directives, now coupled with excluding women from obtaining a medical education, further jeopardize the health, well-being, safety and lives of not just Afghan women and girls, but all Afghans,” Blinken said. The group said the availability of health care was already affected by an insufficient number of female health care workers in the country, where hospital wards are segregated by gender.

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Persons: Antony Blinken, ” Blinken, “, ”, Le Paih, ” Le Paih, Blinken, Donald Trump, Biden, Michael McCaul, ” McCaul, Khalil Haqqani Organizations: Taliban, Rights Watch, United Nations Population Fund, Republican, Foreign Affairs Committee, Biden, ”, Ministry for Refugees, Repatriation, Islamic State Locations: Afghanistan, U.S, Kabul, Texas, State Khorasan Province