Restrictive laws imposed by the Taliban last year mean women cannot train to become doctors or midwives in Afghanistan.

But this does not stop members of the strict Islamist group from bringing their pregnant wives to clinics and hospitals and demanding that only female healthcare professionals treat them, workers in the country have told The Telegraph.

Members of the Taliban want to be seen quickly, and tell medics that they expect high standards of care for their spouses.

“Everything is by force here,” said Feroza Tahiri, a midwife working at a public hospital in Nangarhar province. Despite this, “we tell them you’ll be seen like everyone else”, she said.

Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021, the fundamentalist group has banned education for women and girls post-primary school. Women cannot go to parks, and beauty salons and other women-only spaces have closed.

The Taliban’s laws have isolated the country internationally. This month, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applied for arrest warrants of Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani on the grounds of gender persecution.