When the Taliban suddenly shut nursing and midwifery schools across Afghanistan this month, a handful of students in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif removed their white coats and set them alight in protest.

¡°I saw every single dream of mine go up in flames,¡± said trainee nurse Maary Mohibian as she recalled watching her friends burn their uniforms.

Angry students said the closures had abruptly left thousands of girls without a future and would have serious implications for women¡¯s health care in a country that has some of the world¡¯s highest maternal and infant mortality rates.