Taliban's Smartphone Ban Jumps From Ministries to Classrooms and Hospital Wards

A Taliban order barring government workers from using smartphones is rapidly expanding beyond ministry offices and into Afghanistan's hospitals, schools and universities, raising fears that the country is sliding toward a far broader crackdown on digital life.

The directive, which took effect June 16, orders government employees, judges, police officers and members of the military to stop using smartphones altogether. Violators face confiscation and destruction of their devices, along with unspecified punishment. Only so-called feature phones — the older button handsets that can call and text but have no touch screen, camera or ability to record — are permitted under the rule.

What began as a workplace restriction is now bleeding into everyday institutions. In some provinces, the limits have already moved beyond government buildings and into hospitals, schools and universities, according to NPR, which reported that officials frame the measures as a way to prevent security breaches and the leaking of official documents. Critics see something else: an early test of how far the Taliban can push public restrictions on a technology that millions of Afghans rely on for work, banking and contact with the outside world.

The impact on education has been especially stark. At Kabul University, the leadership council ordered a complete smartphone ban for professors, staff and students, effective June 21. At Herat University, notices posted at the entrance warn that no one may enter carrying a smartphone. There, the restriction reaches into student dormitories, where Wi-Fi service has also been suspended, cutting off residents from the internet entirely.

The measures fit a pattern that has defined Taliban rule since the group retook power in 2021: a steady tightening of controls over information, movement and daily behavior, often rolled out province by province before hardening into national policy. Digital-rights advocates warn that the smartphone campaign could presage limits on public phone use more generally, further isolating a population already cut off from much of the world.

For ordinary Afghans, the practical consequences are immediate. Smartphones have become lifelines in a battered economy — used to run small businesses, transfer money and reach relatives abroad who send remittances home. Aid workers say stripping them from teachers, doctors and civil servants risks paralyzing services in a country still mired in humanitarian crisis. Whether the ban ultimately extends to the general public remains unclear, but its swift creep from the halls of government into wards and lecture halls has left many Afghans bracing for the next restriction.