A Taliban security personnel stands guard as Afghan burqa-clad women wait in a queue in the midst of a downpour to receive food supplies donated during the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Kabul on March 25, 2025. (Photo credit: WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images)
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On September 15, 2025, the Taliban de facto authorities announced an internet ban across large areas of northern Afghanistan. Pronounced by the Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, the move is said to have been implemented to “prevent immoral activities.” The ban is limited to all internet connections via fiber-optic cable, while internet access on cell phone data is not to be affected at this stage. The ban, which at this stage affects five provinces, Kunduz, Badakhshan, Baghlan, Takhar and Balkh, is the first ban of this sort since the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Despite its limited geographical scope, the ban raises serious concerns. The ban will result in homes, businesses, and offices being left without an internet connection. The ban will affect the rights of women and girls and human rights more broadly.
The rights of women and girls
The last four years have seen a litany of restrictions imposed on women and girls, including banning them from higher education. In August 2024, the Taliban introduced a law codifying morality provisions. The new law, “On the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice”, extended the already severe and omnipresent restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls. Article 13 imposed that a woman must veil her body at all times in public. A face covering is said to be essential. This is to avoid temptation and tempting others. Women are to cover themselves in front of non-Muslim males and females. A woman’s voice is deemed intimate, and as such, women are not to be heard singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public. Women are not allowed to look at men they are not related to by blood or marriage, and vice versa.
Over the years, women and girls managed to access some form of education online, relying on fiber-optic networks. The fiber-optic internet ban will result in women and girls being cut off from online education, which has been, since the Taliban takeover, their only viable option.
The internet ban will have a profound effect on human rights in Afghanistan more broadly.
Censorship
The internet has changed the way we access information, the way we connect with others, the way we see opportunities and the way we take them. As the internet has become a global tool for freedom of expression, an internet shutdown usually represents an attempt at censorship. This is also the case in Afghanistan. Banning broadband internet across the five provinces is an unprecedented escalation of censorship. It will undermine the work of journalists and media outlets, and as such, access to information.
The internet shutdown in Afghanistan adds to this growing trend globally. In February 2025, Access Now, a non-governmental organization defending and extending the digital rights of people and communities at risk, published a report documenting 296 shutdowns in 54 countries. This new data surpasses the previous 2023 record of 283 shutdowns in 39 countries, amounting to an increase of 35%. Some 47 active shutdowns continued into 2025. Many States use the internet as a method to control whole communities. Indeed, several States have been using their power to shut down the internet to curb dissent and human rights.
Affect on businesses
The ban will further affect businesses and contribute to the dire economic situation in the country. Fiber-optic internet has been primarily used by businesses, banks, and government agencies. After the introduction of the ban, NetBlocks, an internet monitor, reported that internet usage in the affected provinces had dropped dramatically. While mobile internet has not been affected, prepaid cards are very expensive, and mobile internet is comparatively slow. As such, they do not provide a viable solution.
Internet shutdowns, such as those seen in Afghanistan, violate human rights, put people in danger, and harm the economy. They curtail freedom of expression, cut access to information, and can prevent people from assembling and associating peacefully, online and off. In Afghanistan, such shutdowns are also yet another way to suppress the rights of women and girls, to further isolate them and prevent their participation in society.
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