Stethoscopes and headscarves: female medical students in present-day Afghanistan

This descriptive study reviews the experiences and challenges of female medical students in Afghanistan in the post-Taliban era, addressing issues specific to them as women and also in the wider context of the practice of medicine as it currently exists in this country.

Six female students were observed on in-patient internal medicine clerkships at the National Military Hospital (NMH) in Kabul, Afghanistan. The women also participated in a structured interview used to outline their values and perceptions as females in new roles and an evolving culture.

Responding to the structured interview questions, the women called attention to gender-neutral issues and readily identified gender discrimination, but did not embrace uniquely feminine traits in themselves nor view themselves as women physicians to any appreciable degree.

Although women are now attending medical school and practicing medicine again, their integration into Afghan culture as physicians remains at the developmental stage.