On Monday, September 29, 2025, Afghanistan was thrust into a near-total communications blackout, as the Taliban enforced a sweeping shutdown of internet and telephone services across the country. The move, described by the Taliban as a morality measure, has left over 43 million citizens abruptly disconnected from the world, according to multiple international news sources including BBC, CNN, and The Associated Press.
The blackout, which Netblocks—a global internet-access advocacy group—called "a total internet blackout," marks the most extensive and coordinated telecommunications disruption in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. Netblocks reported that connectivity had plummeted to just 14% of ordinary levels by Monday evening, with both fiber-optic and mobile networks rendered largely inoperable. Telephone services, which often rely on the same fiber infrastructure in Afghanistan, were also severely impacted.
For weeks leading up to the blackout, internet users in several Afghan provinces complained of slow or intermittent connectivity. The roots of the crisis trace back to early September, when Taliban leader Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree banning fiber-optic internet in an effort to prevent what the regime labeled as "immorality" and "vice." According to CBS News, the Taliban's campaign began with stepwise disconnections in remote provinces before culminating in Monday's sweeping nationwide ban.
Local media, including Kabul-based TOLO News TV, confirmed that the fiber-optic internet could be cut across the country starting Monday. The Associated Press reported that it was unable to reach its Kabul bureau or journalists in Nangarhar and Helmand provinces, while AFP lost contact with its offices in Kabul, Herat, and Kandahar. Even international correspondents found themselves suddenly unable to reach Afghan sources, underscoring the magnitude of the disruption.
“Afghanistan is now in the midst of a total internet blackout as Taliban authorities move to implement morality measures, with multiple networks disconnected through the morning in a stepwise manner; telephone services are currently also impacted,” Netblocks wrote in a post on X, as cited by CNN and France 24. The group added that the incident would "severely limit the public’s ability to contact the outside world."
Many Afghans first felt the blackout's effects at the end of the working day, around 5 p.m. local time. But for most, the true impact was expected to become clear on Tuesday morning, when banking services and other businesses were due to resume. Business leaders had already warned that continued internet bans would deal a serious blow to economic activity, and the blackout’s timing—coinciding with the start of the workweek—only compounded those fears.
Afghanistan’s internet infrastructure, built up over the past two decades, relies primarily on a 9,350-kilometre national fiber-optic network. This system, promoted by the former US-backed government as a "priority" for development, had helped connect millions of Afghans to the global economy and to each other. As of 2023, about 18% of the population used the internet, and there were 56 mobile subscriptions per 100 people, according to World Bank data cited by The New York Times.
Yet, as Netblocks explained to AFP, "physically pulling the plug on fibre internet would therefore also shut down mobile and fixed-line telephone services." The Taliban suggested that alternative connectivity options would be established for essential needs, but provided no concrete details, leaving businesses, aid organizations, and ordinary citizens in limbo.
The blackout’s consequences have been immediate and profound. Afghan media outlets, including TOLO News and its parent company Moby Group, reported severe impacts on their ability to operate. Wahida Faizi, an Afghan journalist now based in Denmark, described the personal toll: “It has only been a few hours since the internet was cut off in Afghanistan, but for me, it feels like a lifetime has passed. Every day after work, my mother and father’s voice brought peace to my heart … Perhaps we always complained about the slow internet in Afghanistan, but today I have realized that even faulty internet and those simple moments of video calls were such a great blessing,” she told CNN.
For Afghanistan’s youth, the blackout is especially devastating. Many girls, barred from attending school beyond grade six since the Taliban’s return, had relied on online classes provided by educators abroad or charitable organizations. Sabena Chaudhry, communications manager at Women for Afghan Women, told CNN that the blackout “is not only silencing millions of Afghans but also extinguishing their lifeline to connect with the outside world.” Her organization, based in New York, lost contact with staff inside Afghanistan as a result of the shutdown.
Torek Farhadi, a former senior advisor to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, emphasized to CBS News the far-reaching implications: "For Afghanistan's youth, it is definitely another costly fallback if it continues. It closes the door on online education, it severely handicaps business owners who communicate with clients. It is a deliberate decision to lead society to a blind spot."
The blackout is just the latest in a series of restrictions imposed by the Taliban since their 2021 return. In addition to rolling back women’s rights and detaining journalists, the regime has removed books by women from university curricula, outlawed the teaching of human rights and sexual harassment, and banned girls from education beyond age 12. The internet, once a rare avenue for Afghan women and girls to access learning and connect with the world, has now been all but extinguished.
Internationally, the Taliban remain largely unrecognized as Afghanistan’s legitimate government. Most Western nations, including the United States, have withheld formal recognition and cut aid, contributing to what Human Rights Watch calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Afghanistan is also reeling from the forced return of nearly 2 million refugees from neighboring Iran and Pakistan and the aftermath of a devastating earthquake earlier this month.
Despite the Taliban’s stated goal of preventing "immoral acts," the blackout has also silenced many voices that once challenged the regime’s authority or provided support to vulnerable populations. Even the most prominent Taliban officials, who once boasted tens or hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, have gone silent on platforms like WhatsApp since the shutdown, as noted by The New York Times.
As Afghanistan enters this new era of enforced isolation, the full impact of the blackout—on education, the economy, and the social fabric—remains to be seen. For now, ordinary Afghans are left in the dark, their lifelines to the outside world abruptly and deliberately severed.
