Protect the document: Go to the "Review" tab in the Word ribbon, click on "Restrict

Editing" in the "Protect" group, and then choose "Restrict Editing" from the
dropdown menu. In the "Restrict Editing" pane that appears on the right side of the
window, check the option "Allow only this type of editing in the document", and
then choose "Filling in forms" from the dropdown menu. Optionally, you can set a
password to restrict access to editing the document.

Select the area to be protected: By default, all areas of the document will be
protected except for the content controls (if any) that you have inserted. To allow
users to delete the header and footer, you need to unprotect these areas. Here's
how:

a. Double-click on the header or footer area to enter the editing mode for the
header or footer.

b. In the "Design" tab that appears when editing the header or footer, click on the
"Link to Previous" button to unlink the header or footer from the previous section
(if applicable). This allows you to edit the header or footer separately from the
rest of the document.

c. With the header or footer area still selected, go to the "Header & Footer Tools"
tab in the Word ribbon, click on "Design" if it's not already selected, and then
click on "Different First Page" and "Different Odd & Even Pages" to allow editing
of the first page header/footer and the odd/even page headers/footers,
respectively.

Save and finalize the protection settings: Once you have made the necessary changes
to the header and footer areas, you can finalize the document protection settings
by clicking on the "Yes, Start Enforcing Protection" button in the "Restrict
Editing" pane. If you set a password, you'll be prompted to enter it.

With these settings, users will be able to delete the header and footer content,
but they won't be able to edit other parts of the document unless they unprotect it
with the password.