Liberation through segregation

WHEN Aziz Amir was a young man, his mother died from an infection which should have been easy to treat. “She didn’t go to a hospital because she didn’t want to show herself to a male doctor,” says Mr Amir, a trained cardiologist who now owns a private hospital in Kabul. Determined to give more Afghan women medical training, in May he inaugurated the Moraa Educational Complex, a private university for women only, together with a school and nursery for their children. Housed in a cluster of lime-coloured buildings, the university offers courses including medicine, nursing and midwifery.