Rural Health Inequality: A Case Study of Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Herbal Medicine in South Punjab
Keywords:
Rural Health Inequality, South Punjab, Persian Herbal Medicine, Iranian Traditional Medicine, Medical Pluralism, Healthcare AccessAbstract
Rural health inequality in Pakistan remains structurally embedded, with South Punjab experiencing limited access to formal healthcare infrastructure, workforce shortages and uneven service delivery. This study addresses the governance and accessibility problem arising from reliance on informal and traditional medical systems, particularly ancient Persian and modern Iranian herbal medicine, in underserved rural contexts. It advances two research questions, first how herbal medical systems are positioned within Pakistan’s broader health framework, and second how these practices function within the socio economic and cultural landscape of South Punjab. Empirical evidence from interviews with experts (N=5) and their patients (N=20), where each expert accounts for five patients trained through apprenticeship-based learning, indicates strong socio-cultural acceptance driven by affordability, historical continuity and perceived therapeutic effectiveness, alongside concerns regarding standardisation and clinical validation. Recent literature between 2020 and 2026 supports this trend, including Hamid Reza Nasr in Traditional Persian Medicine and Healing (2021), Ali Abbas Rizvi in Herbal Traditions in South Asia (2023) and Sara Ahmed Khan in Rural Health Systems in Pakistan (2025), each emphasising the resilience of herbal systems under constrained health infrastructures. The findings demonstrate that herbal medicine in South Punjab operates as a compensatory healthcare mechanism within a structurally unequal system, sustaining access while remaining outside formal regulatory integration.
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