✍️ By: Hamia Naderi
During King Amanullah Khan’s reign, alongside the establishment of girls’ schools and women’s publications, Afghanistan’s first women’s hospital — “Masturat Hospital” — was founded in Kabul under the management of Sahira Begum (Seraj-al-Banat), the King’s sister.
At the inauguration ceremony, Sahira Begum criticized the lack of investment in women’s education and empowerment, saying that if Afghan women seemed weak, it was because no government had ever invested in their education or development.
Initially, two Afghan doctors worked at the hospital. Later, with support from the Independent Medical Directorate, several foreign doctors and two European midwives joined the staff. All medical care, food, electricity, and bedding for patients were provided free of charge, as a gesture of the King’s compassion.
The hospital’s work was interrupted in 1929 after Amanullah Khan was overthrown, but it reopened in 1930. By the late 1930s, it reportedly had about 20 beds for women and 9 for children.
Over time, as the Ministry of Public Health was established, healthcare services expanded, and more maternity hospitals and clinics were opened in Kabul and other cities.
During the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the hospital’s name was changed to “Maiwand Hospital”, and it remains one of Kabul’s teaching hospitals today.
