KABUL: Habib-ur-Rahman Hekmatyar, son of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, sharply criticized the Taliban’s recent decision to declare male doctors as “mahram” (fully permitted to treat women) amid a ban on girls’ education. Speaking out on social media, Hekmatyar questioned whether we can call intentional restrictions a religious “necessity” under Islamic law. He argued that deliberately imposing restrictions that lead to a shortage of female doctors, then granting male doctors full access to treat women, contradicts Islamic jurisprudence principles. “In Islamic legal logic, if someone deliberately creates a problem, they cannot then claim ‘necessity’ to justify an action arising from that self-created problem,” Hekmatyar said. The comments come after the Taliban Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister said male doctors are considered mahram for women and have full authority to touch all parts of a patient’s body during treatment. Hekmatyar’s criticism has been widely supported on social media by opponents of the ban on girls’ education. Critics argue that, rather than opening universities to train female doctors, the Taliban are attempting to fill the gap they themselves created with controversial religious interpretations.
