Amu: Taliban have effectively dismantled media freedom in Afghanistan since seizing power in August 2021, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday, citing systematic surveillance, censorship, arbitrary detentions and torture of journalists, with women in the media bearing the brunt of the crackdown. The 2025 report, based on dozens of interviews with journalists
Afghanistan International: The Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education has banned professors and administrative staff below grade four from using smartphones at universities, citing concerns that mobile phone use “causes distraction and complicates work.” Click here to read more (external link).
Khaama: Afghan citizens criticized the nationwide internet blackout, warning it deepens isolation, disrupts communications, limits access to information, and pushes Afghanistan further from global progress and development. Afghan citizens have voiced sharp criticism over the nationwide shutdown of fiber optic internet, warning that the blackout threatens communication and further isolates the country. Access to fiber
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi September 26, 2025 Maryam has worked as an online interpreter since the Taliban banned women from most jobs in Afghanistan. But her livelihood is under threat after the hard-line Islamist group last week shut down access to fiber-optic Internet in large swaths of the country. The move has left government offices, homes,
Afghanistan International: The Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has barred media outlets in Herat from broadcasting images of people or other living beings, local sources said Tuesday. Officials from television stations and YouTube channels were summoned by the ministry and ordered to comply with the restriction, participants in the
Afghanistan International: Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada attempted to block the use of smartphones in Afghanistan before ordering the shutdown of wireless internet, sources told Afghanistan International. According to the sources, about a year ago in Kandahar, Akhundzada asked the Taliban’s council of clerics to find a “religious justification” for banning smartphones. The aim, they
Amu: Taliban morality enforcers in Kabul barred a group of employees from Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), the state-run electricity company, from entering their offices on Thursday, Sept. 11, because they were not wearing the required headwear or had trimmed beards, according to local sources. Taliban agents from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue
Afghanistan International: Sayed Mohammad Ibrahim Gailani, known as Pir Ibrahim Baba, is the nephew of Pir Sayed Ahmad Gailani, former head of the Qadiri Sufi order. His lineage traces back to the prominent Sufi Abdul Qadir Gailani, founder of the Qadiri order. Sayed Ahmad Gailani, a former jihadist leader, served as head of the High
Amu: Taliban morality enforcers detained several women late Thursday near the Parwan Hotel in Kabul’s 11th district, local sources said. The women were taken to a Taliban security facility, where families were told to pay 20,000 afghanis (about $280) and informed that the women would spend one night in jail, according to the sources. Click
Afghanistan International: Human Rights Watch (HRW) has stated that the United Nations member states failing to take effective action against widespread human rights violations in Afghanistan, four years after the Taliban returned to power. In a report released ahead of the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, HRW warned that the group has