Taliban order ban on smartphones as officials shown destroying devices

The Taliban have ordered government officials to stop using smartphones, threatening violators with punishment and the destruction of their devices, according to a directive reviewed by the Guardian [1]. The order, issued by the Taliban's military courts, applies to "high rank, low rank, general mujahideen, or service staff" and states that any exemptions require a written decree from supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada [1]. The Guardian was unable to reach a Taliban spokesperson for comment [1]. The Taliban, which recaptured Kabul in August 2021 and now controls all of Afghanistan, has been widely condemned for restricting human rights, including women's rights to work and education [2]. Reports from inside the country indicate the bans are being implemented in an ad-hoc manner, with some areas targeting only government officials while others extend the restrictions to women, civilians, medical workers, and students [1]. "A lot of things happen at the local level, because of what someone local has decided. But also, it could be a prelude to a blanket ban and they are just testing the waters," an analyst working on Afghanistan told the Guardian [1]. The directive follows a two-day nationwide internet blackout in September, which authorities vaguely justified as a measure to "prevent immorality" [1]. That cutoff froze commerce and affected emergency services and aviation. "The private sector was freaking out, the banking sector was freaking out, even their own people – the security sector and the supreme leader’s office – and they realised 'OK guys, we didn’t really think this through'," the analyst said [1]. In Herat province, two government employees said smartphone bans have been in place for months. One reported that after he and colleagues ignored an order not to bring phones to the office, officials confiscated and smashed the devices, a loss he estimated at about 8,000 afghanis (£95) [1]. The analyst noted that the Taliban worry about productivity and internal leaks, with officials using smartphones to photograph documents and record meetings that then reach the public before the supreme leader signs off on them [1]. The restrictions may also be linked to recent street demonstrations in Herat, where Taliban forces appeared to fire into a crowd, killing at least two people after women and girls were arrested for "improper hijab" [1]. "The videos that came out of the protests in Herat raised a lot of alarms. The emirate was trying to contain it. In the beginning, they denied it. They said, no, no, this didn’t happen. Then the videos started coming out," the analyst said [1]. Under Hibatullah Akhundzada's leadership, the Taliban have reintroduced many policies from their previous 1996-2001 rule, including public executions and banning women from most employment and all education [2]. The Taliban government remains largely unrecognized by the international community [2][7]. "Smartphones and being online affecting productivity to a certain extent is universal. The difference here is that I haven’t seen any other countries legislating against it," the analyst said [1].