Afghanistan's first female lieutenant general dies at 72

Suhaila Siddiq, the first female lieutenant general in Afghanistan and a well-known surgeon, passed away at a hospital in Kabul Friday, her relatives confirmed.

Siddiq served 36 years in Kabul's Daoud Khan Military Hospital as a surgeon. She was Afghanistan's only woman to have the title of a lieutenant general.

The 72-year-old surgeon had Alzheimer’s disease for the last six years.

She was born in 1948 in Kabul and studied at the Kabul Medical University, but completed her medical studies from Moscow State University.

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Siddiq served as the Minister of Public Health in Afghanistan from December 2001 to 2004. Before that, she worked as a senior surgeon at a military hospital.

The country's top leaders, medical professionals and women were among those mourning her death.

Abdullah Abdullah, a former de facto prime minister and foreign minister, said her role in establishing a place for women in the fields of medicine, military and in wider society had been "commendable and undeniable".