Afghanistan has slipped into near-total digital darkness after the Taliban ordered a sweeping internet shutdown, silencing both wired and mobile services nationwide.
What began on September 15 as regional restrictions in northern provinces such as Balkh, Kunduz, Badakhshan, Takhar, and Baghlan has now expanded into a blanket blackout.
By September 29, connectivity across the country had collapsed to just 14 percent of normal levels, according to real-time monitoring by Netblocks and Kentik. “A nationwide telecoms blackout is now in effect,” Netblocks confirmed, calling it a centrally coordinated move.
The Taliban say the decision is about morality. Attaullah Zaid, spokesperson for the Balkh provincial government, announced, “This measure was taken to prevent vice, and alternative options will be put in place across the country to meet connectivity needs.” Haji Zaid, another provincial spokesperson, repeated that “a complete ban has been imposed on fibre-optic cable … This action has been taken to prevent immoral activities.”
Yet the impact on daily life is immediate and severe. Small businesses that had built fragile livelihoods around digital access are collapsing. In Kandahar, women artisans producing embroidered garments at Hayat Handicrafts can no longer rely on affordable broadband.
“The outage has tripled our internet costs,” founder Sabrinna Hayat told Reuters, warning that the burden is unsustainable. Another tailor, Dawrani, whose workshop supports widows, said bluntly, “If I cannot even earn this small piece of bread, I will be forced to leave this country.”
Women who had turned to remote work and online learning after being shut out of public life are finding even that lifeline severed. Maryam, an interpreter in Mazar-e-Sharif, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, “I’m the breadwinner of my family.”
Soraya, a remote worker in Kabul, explained, “The only way we can earn an income and support ourselves and our families under these conditions is through online work. The internet shutdowns have made life more difficult for us, and I’m afraid that I will lose this last hope and my job.”
For girls barred from schools and universities, online classes had been the only remaining access to education. Dawrani said her daughters’ English lessons ended abruptly when the blackout began. “Through this tailoring work, I managed to put food on the table. Without internet, even that may disappear.”
Analysts see the Taliban’s justification as an attempt to disguise deeper goals. Kabul-based academic Obaidullah Baheer observed, “It shows a very anti-modern version of the Taliban. Seems like their fight is against modernity and they’re fitting the bill of people who used to call them draconian.”
Afghanistan’s 9,350-kilometre national fibre network, built with international assistance, has become the choke point for this strategy. By cutting access at the backbone, the Taliban have crippled both digital and voice communication. Government offices, banks, NGOs, and even senior Taliban officials with popular social media accounts have been left in the dark.
Rights groups warn the blackout strips Afghans of more than just connectivity. With traditional media silenced and foreign journalists absent, the internet had become the last window to independent information. Access Now has already counted a record rise in global internet shutdowns, but few are as sweeping as this.
For many Afghans, the blackout is not just an inconvenience but a final isolation from the outside world.
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