When the Taliban shut down the Internet, women lost their lifeline to aid, learning, and each other
The recent blackout exposed how vital the Internet has become for Afghan women and how, when that connection is lost, hope fades and isolation takes hold.
When the Taliban recently cut off the Internet and phone networks across Afghanistan, millions of women and girls were silenced. For those with connectivity, the blackout severed their last link to the outside world – a fragile connection that had kept education, work, and hope alive.
Many women in Afghanistan still lack access to the Internet, a basic phone, or the literacy to use digital tools. For those that do, that connection is a rare lifeline to life-saving services and the outside world.
For now, access has largely been restored. But the message was clear: in Afghanistan, this valuable gateway to learning, expression, and services for women and girls can be shut down at any moment.
Afghan women are already banned from secondary and higher education, from most forms of work, and public spaces such as parks, gyms, and sports clubs.
Many women are also receiving humanitarian aid, including in earthquake-affected eastern Afghanistan, and among those returning – many forcibly – from Iran and Pakistan.
The digital and phone blackout intensified feelings of stress, isolation and anxiety among women and girls.
What happens when Afghan women and girls go offline?
In Afghanistan, the impact of Internet and phone blackouts falls more heavily on women and girls.
It eliminates what is, for many, a final means of learning, earning, and connecting.
When women and girls lose Internet access, they lose the ability to:
- Access aid: Those who are connected can use the Internet or phones to find out about support available, and aid agencies rely on connectivity to continue operations.
- Learn about disasters: Recent data shows 9 per cent of women use the Internet to access information on climate disasters.
- Seek services and reporting mechanisms for survivors of gender-based violence or those at risk.
- Learn: Online classes and study groups were a lifeline for girls banned from secondary schools, and women banned from universities.
- Work: Online businesses are a vital source of income for many women to sustain their families after being pushed out of many formal roles.
- Connect: Social apps and social media provided safe spaces to support one another and exchange information.
- Be visible: For women already excluded from public life, the digital world is one the last places to exist and resist.
For more on what life looks like for women in Afghanistan today, see our FAQs.
Going dark in the middle of humanitarian crises
The national internet blackout started a month after a 6.0 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on 31 August, with major aftershocks continuing throughout September and the emergency response and early recovery continuing.
Despite facing many challenges, women-led organizations have played a crucial role delivering life-saving aid and services to women and girls affected by the earthquake, and Afghan women and girl returnees from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan.
During the blackout, NGOs were forced to halt humanitarian operations and cease field missions to emergency sites. Staff could not process payments or place orders for essential goods destined for women and their families.
When banks went offline, women affected by humanitarian crises were unable to access emergency cash assistance to buy essentials such as food.
The shutdown also made it much harder for survivors of gender-based violence to access help at a time when household tensions were rising across the country, and the risk of violence was escalating.
Online livelihoods switched off
In Afghanistan, waves of directives banning women from most jobs and restricting their movement without a male guardian have systematically pushed them out of public life.
For many women entrepreneurs, the Internet offers a rare space to work, build small businesses, and sell their products – such as nuts, spices, handicrafts, clothes and artworks – to customers within Afghanistan and overseas.
“There is no space for us to work outside our homes,” explained business owner Sama*, from Parwan in eastern Afghanistan. “There’s also no local market where we can display and sell our products.”
With the support of UN Women, Sama built an online shop selling knitted bags, purses and jewelry.
“Through my online shop, I became well known,” she says. “I’m earning money, solving my financial problems, and becoming self-sufficient.”
When the blackout struck, women like Sama lost their only source of income overnight – a warning that for many Afghan women, connectivity is not a luxury, but a lifeline.
From blackout to global action
The Internet blackout in Afghanistan was a stark reminder that the digital world is not neutral. It can be space of empowerment. It can also be a tool of exclusion and isolation.
The stories of Afghan women remind us what is at stake: education, mental health, livelihoods, and hope. When women are silenced online, they are cut off further from opportunity and from the world.
How UN Women is supporting women and girls in Afghanistan
Through its flagship programme, Rebuilding the Women’s Movement, UN Women in Afghanistan partnered with 140 women-led organizations across 24 provinces and supported 743 women staff with salaries and training – amplifying resilience even as public life is restricted.
Read more about our work in Afghanistan.
*Name was changed to protect her identity.
