Are Pakistan’s female medical students to be doctors or wives?

By BBC News

In Pakistan's prestigious medical schools, female students outshine and outnumber their male counterparts. However, many do not end up as practising doctors - and now there are calls to limit their numbers, the BBC's Amber Shamsi in Islamabad reports.

Twenty fourth-year medical students are learning how to examine a patient with a throat infection. Today's lesson is as much about patient care as it is the anatomy of the throat.

The patient is real, a woman, and the instructor invites several of the female students to examine her, since cultural sensitivities dictate that she does not want to be inspected by a man. The instructor has his pick, since there are 17 women and three men in this group of students.

It is almost as if men are an endangered species in Pakistan's medical colleges.

'Catching a husband'

The government body that regulates the medical profession, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), says more than 70% of medical students are women.

Competition to get into these medical colleges is tough - at one college I was told that they receive 10,000 applications for a 100 places. In the more prestigious colleges, students must get 90% grades or more in order to be considered.

I ask one male student why the women were outshining the men. He is in his fifth year, specialising in ear, nose and throat.

"Boys go out, hang out with their friends," he says. "Girls can't go out as much, so they stay at home and rote-learn."