Taliban Rule in Afghanistan: A War Against Shiites, Women, and Modern Technology

Last Updated: July 19, 2026

Nearly five years after reclaiming power in August 2021, the Taliban regime has moved far beyond establishing political control. The group has instituted a coordinated, multi-front campaign to forcibly restructure Afghan society. By systemically purging religious diversity, erasing women from the public sphere, and severing the population’s digital connections to the outside world, the Taliban is executing a total state-sanctioned war against the modern age.

Table of Contents

1. The Systematic Suppression of Afghanistan's Shiites
• 1.1. Political and Legal Erasure
• 1.2. Educational and Cultural Suppression
• 1.3. Restrictions on Religious Practice and Public Expression
• 1.4. Pressure Toward Religious Conformity
• 1.5. Clerical Intimidation and Land Disputes
• 1.6. Institutional Isolation and Lack of Political Dialogue
2. Women: The Taliban's Largest Target
• 2.1. Pillars of Female Autonomy Dismantled
• 2.2. The Systematic Erasure of Women from Public Life
• 2.3. Restrictions on Movement and Daily Life
• 2.4. Healthcare Under Pressure
• 2.5. Forced Marriage and Economic Vulnerability
• 2.6. Legalizing Domestic Violence: The 2026 Penal Code
• 2.7. Detention, Coercion, and Violence in Custodial Settings 
• 2.8. A Gender Apartheid System
3. The Fight Against the Smartphone
• 3.1. A Campaign of Surveillance and Compliance
• 3.2. Crushing Counter-Narratives and Digital Resistance
• 3.3. Enforcing a Tribal Order in a Digital Age
4. Global Silence and Outrage Fatigue
5. Conclusion: An Echo of the 1990s

1. The Systematic Suppression of Afghanistan’s Shiites

While the Taliban presents its rule as one of national unity and religious order, the reality for Afghanistan’s Shiite population—predominantly belonging to the Hazara ethnic group—is one of sustained political exclusion, cultural marginalization, and increasing pressure toward religious conformity. Since the group’s return to power in 2021, the Ja'fari (Twelver Shiite) school of jurisprudence, previously recognized under Afghanistan’s legal framework, has been progressively dismantled.

1.1. Political and Legal Erasure

The Taliban officially recognizes only the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam. In the aftermath of its takeover, the movement abolished the Shiite Personal Status Law, which had previously governed family and inheritance matters for Shiite citizens. As a result, all personal-status cases are now adjudicated exclusively under Hanafi jurisprudence. Senior Taliban officials, including the Minister of Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadim, have publicly stated that Afghanistan recognizes only a single legitimate school of Islamic law.

This stance stands in tension with both Afghanistan’s own Shiite religious heritage and international Islamic declarations such as the Amman Message, which affirms the inclusion of Shiite Islam within the broader Muslim community and rejects their classification as non-believers.

This doctrinal position has translated into near-total exclusion from state structures:

• Exclusion from Governance: Shiites and Hazaras hold only a very limited number of symbolic positions within the administration, with reports indicating just two deputy minister posts and no meaningful representation in senior decision-making roles.
• Local Administrative Displacement: Even in provinces and districts with Shiite majorities, governance and security structures are largely controlled by non-local Taliban appointees, effectively removing local political agency.
• Religious Institutional Marginalization: Provincial religious councils in Shiite-populated areas reportedly contain no Shiite clerics, eliminating formal representation in religious governance structures.

1.2. Educational and Cultural Suppression

Reports indicate that Shiite religious texts and prayer books have been confiscated from mosques and educational institutions. In some areas, the Taliban have reportedly collected and seized Shiite religious books and devotional texts, including Ziyarat Ashura, Dua Kumayl (Supplication of Kumayl), and Dua Faraj (Faraj Supplication), from mosques. Sources further report that books containing Shiite jurisprudential teachings and prayer instructions have also been confiscated.

At the Islam Qala border crossing, religious materials brought by pilgrims returning from Iran and Iraq have reportedly been seized. Among the confiscated items were Ziyarat Ashura and Communication with God. Taliban authorities allegedly described these works as containing “polytheistic content” and material deemed offensive to the Prophet’s companions.

In parallel, the teaching of Ja'fari jurisprudence has been removed entirely from school curricula and university programs, including at institutions where it was previously part of the Sharia faculty, such as Bamyan University.

1.3. Restrictions on Religious Practice and Public Expression

Beyond institutional exclusion, Shiite religious practice has faced increasing restrictions in public life.

(Taliban presence during Shiite Muharram commemorations in Afghanistan - June 2026.)

During Muharram commemorations, Taliban authorities have imposed limitations on public mourning practices, including bans on nighttime gatherings, restrictions on public processions, and removal of religious symbols from public spaces. In several provinces, mourning flags displayed in streets and public areas have been removed, with permission generally limited to enclosed religious spaces such as mosques and tekiyas.

The 2026 Muharram commemorations confirmed the continuation—and possible escalation—of these measures. Local reports from Herat and Kabul indicated that Taliban forces removed newly installed mourning flags at the start of the month and restricted the display of Shiite religious symbols in public spaces. While flags were reportedly permitted inside mosques and congregation halls, public religious expression remained heavily constrained. Earlier restrictions have also included bans on public water distribution for mourners, prohibition of loudspeaker broadcasts of elegies, and limits on inviting Sunni participants to Shiite ceremonies.

Contemporary reporting from Afghan media outlets during the 2026 Muharram commemorations reflected growing concern among Shiite community members regarding restrictions on public mourning practices, the removal of religious symbols, and limitations imposed on religious institutions.

 

(AMU TV report published on 26 June 2026 documenting restrictions imposed on Shiite Ashura commemorations, including limitations on religious symbols, public mourning practices, and loudspeaker use.)

Community representatives described these measures as part of a broader pattern of increasing constraints on Shiite religious expression and participation in public life. Reports further indicated that restrictions included prohibitions on displaying Muharram flags on homes, shops, and other locations outside designated religious venues, as well as limitations on the use of loudspeakers beyond mosque compounds.

(Article published by 8AM Media on 24 June 2026 reporting complaints by Shiite community members regarding increasing restrictions on religious observance under Taliban rule.)

In Kabul, tensions further intensified following disputes over the hoisting of Muharram flags in mosques and Hussainiyas. Sources reported that Taliban Justice Minister Abdul Hakim Shariai summoned representatives of the Shiite Ulema Council and the High Commission of Shiites on 23 June 2026. Several community figures, including Fakuri Beheshti, Hayatullah Alami, Sufi Gardizi, Sheikh Nateqi, and Nematullah Ghafari, were reportedly present.

The individuals were reportedly detained at the Ministry of Justice for several hours and compelled to commit to implementing orders regarding the removal and lowering of Muharram flags.

Reports differ regarding the number of detainees. While AMU TV reported that between 20 and 25 Shiite men were detained in western Kabul in connection with disputes over Muharram flags, other local sources indicated that at least 30 individuals were arrested during the same period. According to local sources, several detainees—including mosque committee members and caretakers of Shiite congregation halls—were held for several days before being released on 25 June 2026. Some reports further indicated that detainees were not released until mourning flags had been removed from mosques and Hussainiyas.

(AMU TV report (25 June 2026) on the detention of approximately 20 Shiite men in Kabul following disputes over Muharram mourning flags.)

These developments followed reports of Taliban interference in Muharram ceremonies in Kabul, including the removal of mourning flags and the arrest of participants, despite prior appeals by the Shiite Ulema Council calling on the authorities to guarantee security for religious commemorations and prevent restrictions on Ashura-related practices.

Reports from Qarabagh District in Kabul Province indicate that Taliban Morality Police prevented Shiite communities from holding Ashura mourning ceremonies in the village of Qala-e Shahi. According to local sources cited on June 27, 2026, security forces raided mourning gatherings over a period of several days, repeatedly disrupting ceremonies and instructing residents not to consume food distributed as religious offerings.

 

(8am Media report (27 June 2026): Taliban Morality Police reportedly prevented Shiite communities from holding Ashura mourning ceremonies in Qarabagh District, Kabul Province.) 

On the day of Ashura itself, sources reported that participants were forced out of a mosque and the building was subsequently locked. Community elders were reportedly taken to the district center, where intimidation and pressure were used to prevent the continuation of the ceremonies. The incident reflects a broader pattern of reported restrictions on Muharram and Ashura commemorations across multiple provinces in Afghanistan. 

Violence against mourners has also been reported in previous years, including incidents in which Taliban forces used lethal force against participants in Ashura commemorations, resulting in civilian casualties.

(Taliban security presence during Muharram commemorations in Kabul, Afghanistan (2023))

Restrictions during the 2026 Muharram commemorations also extended beyond public ceremonies to Shiite religious and media institutions. Following the suspension of Tamadon TV's broadcasts, reports indicated that on 25 June 2026 Taliban authorities ordered the closure of the Khatam al-Nabiyyin Seminary and the Khatam al-Nabiyyin Mosque in Kabul. Taliban forces also reportedly raided Tamadon TV’s headquarters in Kabul, halting its broadcasts, sealing its offices, and shutting down associated facilities while a legal dispute over the properties remained under review before a Taliban court. Tamadon Television later reported that Director General Mohammad Rahmati and employee Mohammad Reza Ehsani were detained and held in Taliban custody.

The Afghanistan Journalists Center condemned the arrests, called for their immediate release, the reopening of the broadcaster, and the restoration of its operations, stating that the incident is part of a wider pattern of increasing pressure on journalists and media workers in Afghanistan, including arrests, detentions, and restrictions on independent reporting under Taliban rule.

 

(8am Media was among the media outlets that reported on the arrest of Mohammad Rahmati, Managing Director, and Mohammad Reza Ehsani, an employee of Tamadon Television.)

Shiite religious organizations linked these actions to a broader pattern of restrictions that included the removal of mourning symbols, the detention of mosque and tekiya officials, and limitations imposed during Tasu'a and Ashura. The measures prompted renewed concern among Shiite community leaders, who argued that they contradicted earlier understandings regarding the conduct of Muharram commemorations.

1.4. Pressure Toward Religious Conformity

The Taliban has also exerted direct pressure on religious identity and practice.

Differences in religious observance, particularly regarding the sighting of the moon for Eid al-Fitr, have led to confrontations. Shiite Muslims have reportedly been pressured to follow Taliban-announced dates for religious holidays, and in some cases, clerics have been detained for organizing independent Eid prayers. There are also reports of individuals being physically forced to break their fast in line with Taliban declarations.

At the institutional level, this pressure has extended into higher education. At Bamyan University, students were reportedly required to sign formal commitments pledging adherence to Hanafi jurisprudence and alignment with Taliban-defined religious principles. Resistance to these pledges led to tensions between students and faculty, including instances of verbal abuse and physical confrontation, particularly between Shiite and Hanafi students.

1.5. Clerical Intimidation and Land Disputes

Shiite religious scholars have faced repeated intimidation. Members of the Taliban’s morality enforcement apparatus have detained and mistreated clerics, including incidents in western Kabul where a Shiite scholar was reportedly beaten and humiliated during questioning related to Shiite legal practices.

At the community level, long-standing land disputes involving nomadic Kuchi groups have intensified under Taliban rule. Armed Kuchi groups frequently enter Hazara-dominated areas in central Afghanistan during seasonal migration, leading to destruction of farmland and disputes over land ownership. Human rights reports indicate that Taliban authorities have frequently ruled in favor of Kuchi claimants, resulting in the forced displacement of entire villages in provinces such as Daykundi and Uruzgan. In several cases, ancestral Shiite land has been transferred to other groups following these rulings.

1.6. Institutional Isolation and Lack of Political Dialogue

Despite repeated appeals from Shiite religious bodies and community representatives, there is little evidence of sustained or structured political dialogue between the Taliban authorities and Shiite institutions. Requests for recognition of Shiite jurisprudence, participation in governance, and protection of religious rights have not been meaningfully addressed.

Shiite community leaders state that formal correspondence and requests for delegation meetings frequently go unanswered, while opportunities for negotiation or institutional representation remain severely limited. As a result, grievances related to religious restrictions, political exclusion, and land disputes are increasingly handled outside formal state mechanisms, contributing to a growing sense of institutional isolation.

This absence of dialogue reinforces a broader pattern that runs through all levels of Shiite experience under Taliban rule: exclusion from decision-making, restriction of religious practice, and limited access to legal or political remedies.

Some Shiite community representatives and observers interpret these restrictions as a form of scapegoating, linking them to broader governance and security failures. The targeting of Shiite communities may also operate as a deliberate diversion from the Taliban’s wider political, economic, and administrative failures. 

2. Women: The Taliban's Largest Target

If one group has borne the brunt of Taliban rule since August 2021, it is Afghanistan's women and girls. No other segment of society has been subjected to such a broad and systematic assault on its rights, opportunities, and freedoms.

When the Taliban returned to power, they initially promised that women would be allowed to study, work, and participate in society "within the framework of Islamic law." Those assurances quickly proved meaningless. Over the following years, the regime introduced an unprecedented series of decrees, restrictions, and prohibitions that have transformed Afghanistan into one of the most restrictive places in the world for women.

Today, Afghan women face barriers in education, employment, healthcare, political participation, freedom of movement, access to public spaces, and even family life. International observers increasingly describe the situation not as ordinary discrimination, but as a systematic effort to erase women from public life.

2.1. Pillars of Female Autonomy Dismantled

One of the Taliban's first major acts after seizing power was to ban girls from attending secondary school. Millions of Afghan girls were suddenly denied access to education beyond the sixth grade.

The restrictions did not stop there. In December 2022, women were banned from universities, ending higher education for an entire generation of Afghan women. Many female students who had spent years preparing for professional careers suddenly found themselves locked out of classrooms and deprived of any future academic prospects.

Employment opportunities were likewise dismantled. Women were removed from many government positions and barred from working for most national and international non-governmental organizations. Numerous professions that had previously offered opportunities for women—including law, public administration, journalism, and civil service—effectively disappeared.

(With formal employment opportunities largely inaccessible, some women and female-headed households have been pushed into begging as a means of survival.)

The consequences extend beyond individual careers. With millions of women excluded from education and employment, Afghanistan has lost a substantial portion of its skilled workforce, further deepening the country's economic crisis.

2.2. The Systematic Erasure of Women from Public Life

The Taliban's campaign against women extends far beyond schools and workplaces. Since 2021, the regime has issued well over one hundred decrees, directives, and restrictions targeting women and girls.

Women have been barred from parks, gyms, sports facilities, and many recreational spaces. Beauty salons—one of the last sectors providing employment and economic independence for women—were forcibly closed nationwide.

Political participation has been eliminated. Before the Taliban takeover, women served as members of parliament, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, journalists, diplomats, and senior government officials. Today, not a single woman holds a position in the Taliban cabinet.

The Ministry of Women's Affairs has been abolished and replaced by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, an institution responsible for enforcing many of the regime's restrictive social regulations.

Women have also largely disappeared from public representation. Female television presenters are required to cover their faces on air. Images of women have been removed from many public advertisements, billboards, and official communications. In many areas, the presence of women in public spaces has become increasingly rare.

The cumulative effect is striking. Women are no longer merely restricted; they are being systematically excluded from visible participation in public life.

2.3. Restrictions on Movement and Daily Life

The Taliban have imposed extensive restrictions on women's freedom of movement.

Women are often required to travel with a male guardian, commonly referred to as a mahram. Long-distance travel without a male relative is generally prohibited, while local enforcement practices vary across different regions of the country.

(Enforcement of mobility regulations is often implemented through roadside and transport checks, including verification of female passengers and accompanying male guardians.)

Strict dress regulations have also been imposed. Women are expected to wear clothing that fully conceals their bodies, and authorities have repeatedly pressured women to comply with increasingly restrictive interpretations of acceptable dress.

(Women are required to comply with strict dress codes, including full-body coverings such as the burqa or similar garments, depending on local enforcement.)

(Enforcement of dress regulations in public spaces involves direct confrontation between Taliban personnel and women perceived as non-compliant.)

What makes these regulations particularly coercive is that punishment frequently extends beyond the individual woman. Male relatives may be penalized if female family members are deemed to have violated Taliban dress or conduct requirements.

For widows, single women, and those without close male relatives, these restrictions create severe practical difficulties. Accessing employment, healthcare, education, humanitarian aid, or even routine daily services often becomes significantly more complicated.

2.4. Healthcare Under Pressure

Restrictions on women have also created serious concerns in the healthcare sector.

Afghanistan already faces one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Yet Taliban policies have further undermined access to medical services by restricting educational opportunities for women in health-related professions.

Particularly alarming were reports that women were barred from studying medicine and midwifery—fields that had remained among the few educational paths still partially accessible to women. Because many Afghan women are reluctant or unable to receive treatment from male physicians, the reduction in female healthcare professionals threatens to create long-term shortages throughout the country.

International organizations have warned that these policies could contribute to worsening maternal health outcomes and further limit access to essential medical care for women and girls.

2.5. Forced Marriage and Economic Vulnerability

The Taliban takeover has coincided with a severe economic and humanitarian crisis that has disproportionately affected women and girls.

Human rights organizations report increasing concerns regarding forced marriages, child marriages, and marriages arranged as a survival mechanism by impoverished families. As economic opportunities disappear and poverty deepens, many families face immense pressure that leaves young girls particularly vulnerable.

Women's rights activists have repeatedly warned that the combination of economic hardship, educational exclusion, and legal inequality creates conditions in which exploitation becomes more widespread and more difficult to challenge.

2.6. Legalizing Domestic Violence: The 2026 Penal Code

In early 2026, additional concerns emerged following reports about a new Taliban penal code.

According to legal analyses and human rights organizations, the code permits husbands to physically discipline their wives under certain circumstances and provides only limited legal protection for victims of domestic violence.

(JURIST reported (February 2026) on the Taliban’s new penal code legalizing domestic violence against women)

Critics argue that the legislation effectively legitimizes domestic abuse by establishing an extremely narrow definition of punishable violence while placing substantial burdens on women seeking legal recourse.

The code has also been criticized for provisions affecting women who leave their homes or seek refuge with relatives without their husband's consent. Human rights advocates warn that such measures further reduce the already limited protections available to women facing abuse.

For many observers, the new legal framework reflects a broader trend: the transformation of gender discrimination from social practice into formal state policy.

2.7. Detention, Coercion, and Violence in Custodial Settings

Reports from international human rights organizations and investigative journalism have documented serious allegations of abuse against women in Taliban detention facilities, including arbitrary detention, physical violence, and degrading treatment. In some cases, women have reportedly been detained for violating moral or social codes enforced by the authorities, often without due process or access to legal representation.

Former detainees and advocacy groups have also raised concerns about intimidation, coercion, and psychological pressure during interrogations. These accounts describe an environment in which detainees face limited transparency regarding charges and uncertain legal status.

Some reports further refer to allegations of sexualized violence or threats of sexual violence in detention contexts. However, access to independent verification remains limited due to restrictions on monitoring and reporting inside the country.

There are also documented patterns in which male relatives are subjected to pressure, detention, or punishment in cases where women are accused of violating Taliban regulations. In practice, enforcement of gender-related restrictions often extends beyond the individual woman, affecting household members and placing families under collective coercive pressure.

This mechanism reinforces compliance through social and familial control, creating additional barriers for women who might otherwise seek to resist or leave restrictive environments.

2.8. A Gender Apartheid System

Taken together, these measures constitute one of the most comprehensive systems of gender-based restrictions in the modern world.

Women have been excluded from higher education, marginalized in the workforce, removed from politics, restricted in their movement, deprived of access to public spaces, and subjected to increasingly intrusive regulation of their daily lives.

As a result, numerous human rights organizations, legal experts, and women's rights advocates have begun describing Afghanistan's situation as a form of "gender apartheid"—a system in which discrimination against women is not merely tolerated but embedded within the governing structure itself.

(Women in public spaces under the presence of Taliban security personnel, reflecting the visible enforcement of restrictive social order.)

Nearly five years after the Taliban's return to power, Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls are officially prohibited from attending secondary school and women are systematically excluded from many of the most fundamental aspects of public life.

3. The Taliban’s War Against Technology, Knowledge, and Information

For the Taliban, technology represents far more than modern convenience. It represents access to information, exposure to alternative ideas, individual autonomy, and the ability of ordinary citizens to document reality beyond state control. Since returning to power in 2021, the regime has increasingly attempted to restrict not only specific devices and platforms, but the broader systems through which knowledge, communication, and intellectual exchange flow.

This broader campaign has recently extended directly to the screens in people's pockets. Under a directive issued by the group’s reclusive supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, government employees—including teachers and education workers—have been prohibited from using smartphones.

 

(The Guardian and other international outlets reported and verified the Taliban smartphone ban, including footage of officials destroying devices.)

The consequences for defying the order are severe. Taliban authorities have warned that violators may face military courts, dismissal from their positions, and the public destruction of their devices.

Yet the smartphone ban represents only one part of a much broader campaign. The Taliban’s confrontation with modern technology follows the same ideological pattern visible in its treatment of women, religious minorities, and civil society: restricting anything that allows individuals to operate beyond direct state control.

Smartphones, the internet, books, academic institutions, and scientific knowledge all provide channels through which Afghans can encounter ideas and information outside the Taliban’s ideological framework. By limiting these channels, the regime seeks to shape not only public behavior but also the boundaries of knowledge itself.

Rather than rejecting technology entirely, the Taliban has adopted a selective approach. Modern tools are accepted when they strengthen surveillance, administration, and propaganda, but restricted when they enable citizens to communicate freely, document abuses, or engage with the wider world.

The result is an expanding campaign against the foundations of an open society: free information exchange, scientific development, and the ability of individuals to learn, question, and connect beyond state-imposed limits.

3.1. A Campaign of Surveillance and Compliance

The smartphone ban was issued through a verbal decree by Akhundzada and has been enforced through the Taliban’s "Supervision and Pursuit of Orders and Commands" department. The agency has launched a broad compliance campaign across government institutions and military facilities, distributing monitoring forms that require employees to provide personal information, including their names, positions, and phone numbers.

The measure transforms a personal device into an instrument of state surveillance. By requiring officials to register their information and submit to monitoring, the Taliban reinforces a system in which loyalty and obedience are prioritized over individual privacy.

Defiance is being treated as a serious violation of Taliban orders. Videos have recently circulated on social media showing Taliban personnel physically smashing their own smartphones as a public demonstration of compliance with Akhundzada’s order. While the ban does not yet officially apply to the general public, fears are mounting that a nationwide restriction could follow. Analysts suggest the regime could attempt to squeeze the public market by heavily restricting or banning the import of smartphones altogether.

The campaign reveals a central feature of Taliban governance: technology is tolerated only when it remains under state control. Devices that facilitate administration and surveillance are accepted, while those that allow citizens to communicate independently, document events, or access outside information are increasingly viewed as a threat.

3.2. The Censorship of Books and the Destruction of Intellectual Space

The Taliban’s campaign against modern technology is accompanied by an equally aggressive campaign against books, academic freedom, and independent knowledge. Libraries, universities, and educational institutions have increasingly become targets of ideological control.

In December 2023, Taliban authorities instructed private universities to remove books considered incompatible with Hanafi jurisprudence or allegedly capable of encouraging opposition to Taliban religious interpretations. The order specifically targeted Shiite religious materials, but censorship expanded beyond sectarian texts to include political and historical works viewed as critical of the Taliban or its allies.

Among the banned works were books discussing Afghanistan’s political history, the Taliban movement, and regional conflicts. Afghan authors and intellectuals described the measures as a direct assault on academic freedom and the right to access knowledge.

By controlling what students, researchers, and ordinary citizens are allowed to read, the Taliban seeks not only to regulate information but to reshape collective memory itself.

3.3. Suppression of Science and Modern Education

The Taliban’s restrictions on technology cannot be separated from its broader rejection of scientific and intellectual development. Universities have been subjected to ideological restructuring, with academic disciplines and teaching materials increasingly evaluated through a religious and political lens rather than academic standards.

Beyond restricting access to higher education for women, the Taliban has also reshaped the university environment itself. Reports from Afghan students describe increasing ideological control inside universities, including mandatory religious instruction, stricter enforcement of appearance regulations, and declining academic standards as experienced lecturers leave and qualified educators are replaced.

(The Guardian published a report on 13 July 2026 examining the impact of Taliban education policies on Afghan male students and the broader transformation of university life.)

As a result, higher education is increasingly transformed from a space of independent inquiry and critical thinking into an institution focused on discipline, conformity, and ideological instruction. Male Subjects considered incompatible with the Taliban’s worldview have faced restrictions, while women have been completely excluded from higher education. The result is a systematic weakening of Afghanistan’s scientific capacity, research institutions, and future workforce.

The consequences extend beyond universities. Restrictions on scientific education and research limit Afghanistan’s ability to develop expertise in fields such as engineering, medicine, information technology, and other areas essential to modern development.

A society cut off from science and innovation becomes increasingly dependent on external assistance, while a generation of young Afghans is deprived of the ability to participate in global technological and intellectual progress.

3.4. Restrictions on Reproductive Knowledge and Healthcare Access

The Taliban’s control over knowledge extends even into reproductive healthcare. Although the regime has not formally announced a nationwide legal prohibition on contraceptives, reports indicate that Taliban officials have pressured pharmacies to stop selling birth-control products through intimidation and threats.

This unofficial ban has restricted women’s access to family planning and essential healthcare information. Reports indicate that shortages have pushed some women toward black-market sources, increasing the risk of counterfeit or unsafe products.

Such policies demonstrate that the Taliban’s restrictions are not limited to political expression or communication technology; they also extend into scientific knowledge, medicine, and personal health decisions.

3.5. Digital Control, Information Battles, and Online Resistance

The Taliban’s relationship with technology follows a consistent pattern: technology is tolerated only when it serves state control, but suppressed when it empowers citizens. The regime’s fear is not the smartphone itself, the internet itself, or modern devices themselves. The fear is what these tools represent: access to information beyond Taliban authority.

For nearly five years, ordinary Afghan citizens armed with smartphones and internet connections have acted as decentralized reporters. They have bypassed state censorship to broadcast the grim realities of life under the regime—documenting corruption, ethnic discrimination, human rights abuses, and extrajudicial killings. These citizen-led narratives have severely damaged the Taliban’s efforts to project an image of stability and legitimacy to the international community.

Furthermore, digital connectivity has actively undermined the Taliban’s most regressive policies. Despite the group’s sweeping ban on female education, women and girls have continued their schooling through a rapidly growing network of online academies and distance-learning platforms.

The regime's frustration with the internet is not new. The Taliban previously orchestrated a sudden, nationwide internet shutdown, beginning with the severance of fiber-optic cables in Balkh province. The blackout crippled Afghanistan’s connection to the world—grounding flights, freezing banking operations, halting commercial trade, and disabling critical public systems. Sources indicate the shutdown was ordered by Akhundzada himself—a leader famously hostile to modern technology, who refuses to use a smartphone or view television content. While the regime was ultimately forced to restore connectivity due to economic necessity, the incident underscored their willingness to paralyze the nation to halt the flow of information.

3.6. Enforcing a Tribal Order in a Digital Age

The smartphone crackdown is ultimately connected to the Taliban’s broader effort to impose a highly controlled social order. Under the Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the regime has restricted the publication of images of living beings, prohibited activities such as music, and used morality authorities to enforce these rules in public life.

The Taliban’s concern is not merely technology itself, but the independence it creates. Private devices allow individuals to maintain spaces beyond direct ideological supervision and weaken the regime’s ability to regulate personal behavior.

This is particularly significant for Afghan women, who have used digital tools to continue learning, communicate, and maintain connections beyond restrictions that have excluded them from education, employment, and many public spaces.

The Ideological Framework Behind the Restrictions

While the Taliban claims its decrees are rooted in Sharia law, many Islamic scholars and critics argue that its social codes reflect a specific tribal and patriarchal interpretation rather than universally accepted Islamic principles. By presenting these restrictions as religious obligations, the Taliban transforms social customs into state-enforced rules.

Within this worldview, women are expected to remain silent, submissive, and confined primarily to the private sphere. Technology challenges this model by giving individuals—especially women—greater ability to act independently of the structures the Taliban seeks to control.

4. Global Silence and Outrage Fatigue

In response to these mounting atrocities, the Permanent People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan in The Hague ruled that the Taliban is actively committing crimes against humanity, characterizing their actions as a "coordinated, State-level campaign to erase women from public life." UN Special Rapporteurs have gone further, documenting the crisis as a form of "femi-genocide."

Yet, the international political response has remained largely toothless. While Afghanistan's permanent representative to the UN, Naseer Ahmad Faiq, directly condemned the regime's draconian measures on the floor of the UN Security Council, a massive, formal resolution from Western capitals remains noticeably absent.

This relative silence stems from a delicate diplomatic deadlock. The UN's primary focus in Afghanistan is delivering humanitarian aid to a population where two-thirds depend on assistance to survive. Issuing aggressive political sanctions risks causing the Taliban to completely shut down aid operations, which would instantly trigger nationwide famine. Combined with international "outrage fatigue," the world has largely normalized the structural injustice gridlocking the country.

5. Conclusion: An Echo of the 1990s

As the Taliban leadership doubles down on its ideological purity, the smartphone has emerged as its primary domestic adversary because it remains the last line of defense against absolute isolation.

Ultimately, this multi-layered siege reads like a dark repetition of the 1990s. During their first period of rule, the extremist group completely criminalized television, video cassettes, and music. Back then, the Taliban's morality police routinely raided homes, smashed electronics, and famously hanged confiscated television sets and unspooled VHS tapes from fences and trees as public warnings to the population.

Thirty years later, the technology has evolved from cathode-ray tubes to pocket-sized smartphones, but the regime’s fundamental fear of the outside world—and its coercive methods of suppression—remain largely unchanged. At the same time, developments across Afghanistan demonstrate that the Taliban's efforts to impose total control continue to face resistance. Despite growing repression, armed opposition groups remain active in several provinces, while many Afghans continue to resist restrictions on their freedoms through both organized and everyday acts of defiance. The world cannot afford to remain silent as the Taliban attempts to plunge an entire nation back into informational, cultural, and social isolation.