Taliban forbid women to buy SIM Cards in Uruzgan

By: Rukhshana Media

Women are forbidden to buy SIM Cards in Uruzgan province until a special SIM card sales section for women is created in the province, according to a letter seen by Rukhshana Media.

The letter is signed by Zainullah Faruqi, the Taliban’s director of Communication and Information Technology in the province, and issued on Wednesday, November 23.

“All customer service centers of telecommunications companies in Uruzgan province are instructed that nobody is allowed to sell SIM cards to women,” the Taliban says in the letter. “Until a special SIM card sales section is created for women.”

The decision is taken after a meeting between Mullah Zainullah Faruqi and the representatives of the telecommunications companies in the province.

The Taliban have recently banned women and girls from going to sports clubs, women’s public baths, parks, and funfairs.

Shopkeepers in different provinces, including Kandahar, Balkh, and Ghazni provinces were previously forbidden not to sell anything to women without a male chaperone and the Taliban’s prescribed [all-covering] hijab.