The prohibition immediately shut down a programme backed by the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America, a US-based charity that provided free donor corneas. The initiative had facilitated more than 150 surgeries across the country, including approximately 90 transplants at Kabul's Noor Eye Hospital before operations were halted. The directive forces vulnerable patients onto growing waiting lists with no viable domestic treatment options remaining. This healthcare restriction mirrors broader ideological mandates that have systematically targeted education, medical training, and human rights studies since 2021.
Key points
Hundreds of patients suffering from trauma, explosions, and workplace injuries now face p…: Hundreds of patients suffering from trauma, explosions, and workplace injuries now face permanent blindness without access to corrective surgery.
The shutdown deepens Afghanistan's broader healthcare crisis, which already suffers from…: The shutdown deepens Afghanistan's broader healthcare crisis, which already suffers from shortages of local donor corneas and trained ophthalmologists.
The medical directive aligns with extensive social curbs that previously closed midwifery…: The medical directive aligns with extensive social curbs that previously closed midwifery programmes and removed human rights subjects from universities.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
In its latest crackdown on human rights, the Taliban has now banned corneal transplant operations in Afghanistan, declaring the sight-saving procedure contrary to Islamic teachings and ordering hospitals to stop carrying them out. The move threatens to leave hundreds of people, particularly young patients who have lost their eyesight in explosions and accidents, without access to treatment.
According to a report by The Telegraph, Taliban authorities verbally instructed surgeons to halt the operations, warning against carrying out the procedure.
Dr Noor Zaman Hashim of Noor Eye Hospital in Kabul said his facility had performed around 90 transplants in recent months before the directive brought the programme to a standstill. The hospital has since accumulated a waiting list, largely comprising young people who lost their eyesight due to trauma, explosions, accidents and welding-related injuries.
“Decades of violence have devastated Afghanistan’s healthcare infrastructure. We neither have sufficient ophthalmologists nor locally available corneas to meet the demand for transplants,” Hashim told The Telegraph.
“The Taliban have verbally instructed us to stop the transplants.
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