cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4824110
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The country is currently experiencing a “total internet blackout” according to internet watchdog Netblocks - a move that has paralysed the country’s essential services.
International news agencies say they have lost contact with offices in the capital Kabul. Mobile internet and satellite TV has also been severely disrupted across Afghanistan. Flights from Kabul airport have also been disrupted, according to local media reports.
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Anas, a money changer in Takhar province, says his business has faced “enormous problems” since the internet shutdown, saying that much of his work depends on the internet.
“Our business has been affected by about 90%,” he says. “Yesterday, my brother who is also my business partner tried to send an email to a client. He couldn’t get it through.”
But his main concern are his three daughters - all of whom used to take online classes.
"The night before, we heard the Taliban had cut internet access in Mazar, and my eldest daughter came to me with tears in her eyes and said she feared the same would happen here.
“Their last opportunity to study is now gone. Seeing my children so helpless… [that was] the hardest for me. Only God knows what will happen to them and to me.”
Connectivity breed hope. For much the same reason why internet access is considered a part of human rights in the modern world, they know just how big a threat access to new ways of thinking, of possibility can be to their control.