In this 2022 photo, three university students check their smartphones.In June, the Taliban announced a ban on the devices in certain sectors of society.
The ripple effect is making students afraid to bring their smartphones to school.Wakil Kohsar/AFP/via Getty Images hide caption Farzana, 40, is a midwife who covers 10 villages in Moqor district of Afghanistan's Ghazni province.
Until recently, worried mothers often sent her photos of newborns with rashes, swelling or skin infections so she could decide who needed help most urgently.But since the Taliban began enforcing a ban on smartphones that took effect in June, Farzana says she has stopped using her smartphone out of fear.She can now only be reached through a regular phone line — a more costly option in a country where people rely heavily on WhatsApp for calls, messages, photos and urgent coordination."I cannot be everywhere at once," said Farzana, who like many Afghans goes by one name.
"Sometimes a photo or a message helps me understand whether a mother or newborn needs urgent help."For stories about life in our changing world, subscribe to NPR's Global Health newsletter.Across Afghanistan, smartphones have become part of a fragile support system.Families use them to consult doctors remotely, arrange transport to distant clinics, send photos of wounds and symptoms, ask relatives for money, document abuse and reach schooling that is no longer available in person to many girls and women.
That fragile network is now under threat.Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have ordered government employees, judges, police and members of the military to stop using smartphones under a directive that took effect June 16.The order threatens violators with confiscation, destruction of their devices and punishment (which are not specified).The use of what are known as feature phones — with calli...