By Mohammad Reza Mirzai
Internet access is now widely seen as a basic right. In Afghanistan, however, it has become a weapon. The Taliban’s shutdown of fiber-optic networks goes beyond censorship—it is digital authoritarianism. By cutting connectivity, the regime has severed access to education, information, and commerce. Students are stranded, journalists silenced, businesses paralyzed. This is not about bandwidth; it is about power. Afghanistan is being deliberately disconnected from the world.
In mid-September, Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered a nationwide shutdown of fiber-optic internet network, beginning in Balkh province before quickly expanding to Baghlan, Badakhshan, Kunduz, Nangarhar, Takhar, and Herat. While Taliban officials framed the move as a step to “prevent immorality,” rights groups condemned it as a deliberate effort to silence dissent and tighten control over information.
The shutdown marks the latest blow to Afghanistan’s fragile civic space. Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, more than 450 media outlets have closed, women have been banned from journalism, and girls are barred from education beyond sixth grade. For many, the internet had remained the last fragile lifeline—to classrooms, to commerce, to the outside world. That lifeline has now been severed.
The blackout is not just symbolic. It has triggered immediate and devastating consequences across education, the economy, the media, women’s rights, and even basic public services.
Education Cut Off
Among the first and most visible victims are Afghan women and girls, already banned from schools and universities. For many, online platforms had become their only path to learning. Through virtual classrooms, they pursued foreign languages, higher education, and even international degrees. Now that the bridge has collapsed.
“I’m heartbroken. How am I supposed to teach the girls now?” asked filmmaker and educator Sahraa Karimi, who has been teaching remotely from abroad, in an interview with Deutsche Welle (DW). Her students, once united by Wi-Fi, now sit in silence, cut off from their lessons.
The scale of the disruption is stark. Afghan Female Student Outreach (AFSO), a nonprofit initiative offering real-time university-level classes to Afghan women, said that roughly 200 of its 800 students lost access overnight.
“I’m really frustrated. How am I supposed to join my classes?” a student told The Washington Post. She had been preparing for the TOEFL exam to apply abroad, but with testing centers offline, her future is now in jeopardy.
Lucy Ferriss, president of AFSO, voiced deep concern over the blackout. “I truly don’t know how these young women can continue as full-time college students without any connection from Afghanistan,” she said. “This isn’t just a technological disruption. It’s a calculated act of exclusion, severing an entire generation from education, opportunity, and hope.”
Markets Without Connections
The internet shutdown has delivered a devastating blow to Afghanistan’s fragile economy, which depends heavily on fiber-optic infrastructure to support secure banking, customs processing, and daily business operations.
Over 80% of Afghanistan’s business transactions are conducted online. With the fiber-optic network offline, more than 150 bank branches across key provinces were forced to suspend operations, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers unable to access their accounts or process payments. In cities such as Mazar-i-Sharif, banking services were completely paralyzed until local Taliban officials issued limited exemptions.
Merchants, too, are struggling to keep businesses afloat. According to DW, mobile internet has been throttled to 2G speeds, making even basic email correspondence and digital invoicing nearly impossible. The World Bank’s Afghanistan Economic Monitor said in a new report that the disruption threatens $2.3 billion in annual exports, including marble, dried fruits, and carpets, and has already caused an 18% drop in foreign direct investment. The same report noted a 54% surge in Afghanistan’s trade deficit in 2024, with investor confidence deteriorating further as the country becomes increasingly cut off from global markets.
The World Bank report Commerce is grinding to a halt: trade bottlenecks at customs are stalling goods, payrolls remain frozen for sectors employing 1.2 million formal workers, and shipments face average delays of seven to ten days, fracturing supply chains that rely on real-time coordination.
Entrepreneurs warn that the impact is existential. Atta Mohammed, a marble contractor in Kandahar, told AFP: “If I can’t respond to emails from clients in Dubai and India promptly, my business will suffer. I have not been able to sleep.” Another trader, interviewed by DW, said: “If mobile internet is cut next, we will lose everything. Our contracts, our payments, and our clients all depend on staying connected.”
Khan Jan Alokozai, Vice President of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment, warned in an interview with Deutsche Welle: “We are already facing major challenges. Don’t widen the gap between the people and the government any further.”
Voices Disconnected
The blackout is also crippling Afghanistan’s already battered media sector. Journalists cannot publish freely, access information, or communicate securely. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has described the ban as “an unprecedented escalation of censorship” that strips the public of access to information and cripples independent reporting.
Afghanistan had more than 600 media outlets before August 2021, but by 2025, fewer than 150 remain, most under strict Taliban control, according to UNAMA and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Female journalists, 15% of the workforce before the Taliban’s return, have been almost entirely pushed out of the profession. “We used to fight for press freedom with words,” one Afghan journalist told UNAMA. “But now we don’t even have the means to speak.”
Forbes, meanwhile, reported that the fiber-optic shutdown has made even encrypted communication tools unreliable, leaving over 1,000 remaining journalists vulnerable to surveillance and retaliation.
Media watchdogs say the blackout is accelerating the collapse of press freedom. The Afghanistan Media Support Organization lamented that the blackout “not only disrupts millions of citizens’ access to free information and essential services, but also poses a grave threat to freedom of expression and the work of the media.” Reporters Without Borders ranked Afghanistan 175th out of 180 countries in its 2025 Global Press Freedom Index, with a score of just 17.88 out of 100—one of the harshest environments for journalism in the world.
UNAMA has documented 256 arrests of journalists and media workers since the Taliban’s return in August 2021, alongside 130 cases of torture and ill-treatment. The internet blackout, particularly the fiber-optic shutdown, is seen by rights groups as a strategic move to eliminate digital spaces where dissent and independent reporting could survive.
Cutting Women Off From the World
The Taliban’s fiber-optic blackout has deepened the isolation of Afghan women, cutting one of their last lifelines to the outside world. In a society where women are already barred from public life, the internet provided a rare space for autonomy—a place to study, work, connect, and express themselves. Its removal is more than a technical disruption; rights groups describe it as a deliberate act of exclusion designed to further silence women.
According to Forbes, an estimated 120,000 Afghan women relied on fiber-optic internet for employment and digital engagement. Many worked remotely as freelance writers, graphic designers, online vendors, or cryptocurrency traders, roles that allowed them to earn income while staying within Taliban restrictions on public-facing jobs. With fiber-optic networks now shut down and mobile data prohibitively expensive, reaching up to 1,000 Afghanis ($13) per gigabyte in rural areas, thousands are being forced out of the workforce.
The internet was also essential for emotional survival. Afghan women used messaging apps to stay in touch with relatives abroad, join support groups, and maintain friendships. Social media platforms offered a sense of visibility and solidarity. Yet in rural regions, where more than 70% of Afghan women live, mobile internet is slow, costly, and unreliable, according to Economic Times Telecom. The blackout has compounded mental distress, driving increased anxiety, isolation, and feelings of abandonment.
Perhaps most critically, the shutdown has erased women’s voices. Under Taliban rule, women are banned from appearing in the media, attending public events, or traveling without a male guardian. Online spaces had become their last stage—a fragile platform to advocate, organize, and resist. As Reuters reported, the shutdown is not simply censorship but erasure: a targeted move to eliminate digital spaces where women could still exist publicly.
Administrative Paralysis
While state operations depend on reliable connectivity from identity registration to customs processing, the blackout is affecting Afghanistan’s administrative sphere. By disabling the fiber-optic network, the Taliban have jeopardized over 150 passport offices, frozen civil registration systems that manage three million records annually, and stalled $7.4 billion in trade, according to Deutsche Welle (DW). Without internet access, government agencies lose the ability to coordinate, maintain transparency, and deliver essential services.
The contradiction became stark after the recent earthquake in the country’s western provinces. The Taliban relied on digital platforms to share casualty figures, coordinate rescues, and appeal for international assistance. These updates enabled swift responses from global actors like the United Nations, which released emergency funds and deployed relief teams. Countries, including the United Kingdom and South Korea, also contributed through UN channels. Without internet access, this life-saving communication would have been impossible.
Former Afghan education minister Sayed Ahmad Shah Sadaat, in an interview with DW, warned: “The fiber-optic network, which people rely on for online education, commerce, and the banking system, will negatively impact all areas of life. The Taliban have no alternative internet system. If the network is cut off, Afghanistan faces a dark time ahead.” His remarks echo mounting concerns among experts and civil society that the blackout will not only isolate citizens but also cripple the very institutions the Taliban depend on to govern.
Conclusion
The Taliban’s justification for the internet ban, based on vague notions of “preventing immorality,” is dangerously misleading. This rationale masks the far-reaching consequences of dismantling digital access in a country where connectivity underpins education, commerce, journalism, and civil society. In Afghanistan, over 80% of businesses rely on the internet, and thousands of students, especially women and girls, depend on online platforms for learning. Cutting fiber-optic access is not a protective measure; it is a calculated act of exclusion, designed to suppress dissent, erase women from public life, and dismantle the very infrastructure of a functioning society.
This is not a moral safeguard; it is digital repression. The Taliban’s order strips millions of Afghans of their right to communicate, to learn, to work, and to be seen. It silences journalists, paralyzes institutions, and isolates already marginalized communities. Morality cannot serve as a smokescreen for censorship. The internet is not a luxury; it is a lifeline. Its removal marks a deliberate retreat from progress, pushing Afghanistan deeper into isolation and authoritarian control.
The international community must not accept this under the guise of cultural relativism or religious justification. This blackout is a violation of fundamental human rights. Restoring internet access is not just a technical fix—it is a moral obligation, a necessary step to reconnect Afghans with opportunity, dignity, and the wider world.
