Many Afghan women and girls can no longer communicate or study online after the internet is cut off in 12 provinces
L
ast week, 17-year-old Marjaneh* sat at her computer, waiting for her nightly online English lessons to begin. At 7pm, the scheduled start time, her laptop screen stayed black. The family’s wifi, like the wireless internet across her neighbourhood, had gone and with it, her only chance to continue her education.
“These online classes were my only source of hope,” says Marjaneh, speaking from Afghanistan through a crackling phone connection. “I thought, when they [Taliban] closed schools at least they wouldn’t cut the internet, but now that has been taken away too.”
Last Monday, the Taliban started shutting down Afghanistan’s fibre-optic internet across the northern provinces. On 15 September, the connection to Balkh province was cut and since then access to broadband internet has also been closed to Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan, Nimroz, Zabul, Baghlan, Takhar, Kunduz, Badakhshan, Herat and Parwan.
