Faizi "has been appointed based on merit and needs as director of the Malalai maternity hospital," health ministry spokesman Javid Hazheer told EFE on Tuesday.

The appointment is an unprecedented moment in the Taliban's policies towards women since the Islamists seized power on August 15 as women had been excluded from public offices so far.

Women also faced curbs on their freedom of movement and accessing high-school education as well as other jobs.

Only a few government departments, such as health, currently include women in their workforce.

Faizi's appointment would have been unthinkable in the previous Taliban regime in 1996-2001, which was marked by a strict implementation of Islamic law, with public punishments and women being confined to their houses.

The doctor graduated from the Kabul University in 1996, just before the Taliban came to power for the first time, and later worked in the capital's Indira Gandhi maternity hospital and other organisations.

"We can say this is a good move by the Taliban government and the women are not only needed in health sector, they have proved capable in other sectors as well, as they proved to be equal with men in serving the country," social activist Deeba Farhamand told EFE.

However she said that the labour and education rights of millions of Afghan women and girls continue to be ignored by the Taliban.

Hospitals such as the one to be headed by Faizi, mainly attending to women, have traditionally also been headed by women due to social norms in the conservative country but her appointment has generated hopes among women activists.

Australian Associated Press