Suhaila Siddiq, the first female lieutenant general in the Afghan army and a former minister in the Afghan government,  passed away on Friday morning at a hospital in Kabul, reported TOLOnews. She was 82. 

A surgeon by profession, Suhaila had served in Daud Khan Military Hospitals for 36 years in Afghanistan. Born in 1938 in Kabul, she first studied at Kabul University and then went on to pursue medical education in Moscow, Russia. 

She worked in the military as a surgeon for years and was the only woman to rise up to the rank of lieutenant general in the Afghan army. After the United States dislodged the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001, she served as the Minister for Public Health in the government between December 2001 to 2004. 

As per the report on TOLOnews, Suhaila had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease lately and had lost her capacity to remember much about her early life.