suitable environment" had been established at universities and promised that it would provide such a setting soon. However, BBC News pointed out that they had previously reneged on similar promises to reopen secondary education. Some Taliban leaders told BBC News that they disagreed with restrictions on female education. The Taliban decision was also widely condemned internationally. The following day, there were reports by the Wall Street Journal, The Times and The Guardian that the Taliban had banned primary schools for girls, effectively constituting a total ban on female education. However, NPR and The New York Times quoted statements by the Taliban Ministry of Education in which it denied banning girls primary education. Government On 17 August 2021, shortly after the Fall of Kabul, a senior member of the Taliban cultural commission, Enamullah Samangani, called on women to join the government. In contrast, in early September, the Taliban said that women would not be allowed to "work in high-ranking posts" in the government and "ruled out" women in the Cabinet. The acting Cabinet announced by the Taliban on 7 September consisted only of men. Health care Prior to the Taliban taking power in Afghanistan, male doctors had been allowed to treat women in hospitals, but the decree that no male doctor should be allowed to touch the body of a woman under the pretext of consultation was soon introduced. With fewer female health professionals in employment, the distances many women had to travel for attention increased while the provision of ante-natal clinics declined. In Kabul, some women established informal clinics in their homes to service family and neighbours, yet as medical supplies were hard to obtain, their effectiveness was limited. Many women endured prolonged suffering or a premature death due to the lack of treatment. For those families that had the means, inclination, and mahram support, medical attention could be sought in Pakistan. In October 1996, women were barred from accessing the traditional hammam, public baths, as the opportunities for socialising were ruled un-Islamic. These baths were an important facility in a nation where few possessed running water and the bar gave cause for the UN to predict a rise in scabies and vaginal infections among women denied methods of hygiene as well as access to health care. Nasrine Gross, an Afghan-American author, stated in 2001 that it has been four years since many Afghan women had been able to pray