By: Sherin Yousfi
Nazanin no longer takes her phone with her when she leaves home. Ever since she was forced to handover her phone to armed Taliban forces, she prefers to leave home without it.
Six days ago, the Taliban members looked at all the private contents of her phone while she was in Sar-e-Pul in west Kabul. They said they were searching it to make sure the 24-year-old was not in contact with men who were strangers or non-mahrams.
“They told me to show them my WhatsApp messages and checked them to make sure none of the messages were from a male stranger. I didn’t know whether to laugh or to scream out of anger,” Nazanin says.
“They checked the photo gallery, my contacts, and my messages for almost twenty minutes. I was so scared. They checked all the photos on my phone.”
Women are becoming increasingly concerned at the encroachment of the Taliban’s restrictions as more women are having their phones searched on the pretext of morality.
In an interview with Rukhshana Media, several women say the Taliban check their phones by force and threats. Once their mobile phones are accessed, the Taliban go through their contact numbers, personal photos, messages, and any other contents that might reveal a male non-family member.
Ten days ago, Khalida, 30, was travelling through Wazir Akbar Khan in Kabul and she was stopped and forced to handover her phone to a Talib.
She says that the Taliban humiliated and insulted her after seeing her private family photos.
“There were photos of me with my family without a veil in the phone gallery, which is a normal thing at home,” she says. “The Talibs told me that ‘You are not a Muslim.’ When I tried to defend myself, he told me ‘Shut up, shameless whore’,” she says.
“They said they should break my phone on the ground. But I begged them not to and said that I would delete the photos and videos, just please don’t smash it on the ground.”
Women see this increasing invasion of privacy by the Taliban as yet another means to terrorise women and keep them stuck at home.
Sima, 25, has been protesting for women’s rights in Kabul. In the past month, her phone has been checked twice. The first time was in Qaele Naw area of west Kabul, but she managed to delete the phone contents before she handed it over to the Taliban.
“They made us get out of the car and told us to give them our phones. As they were checking the phones of the two other people, I deleted my entire gallery and also the WhatsApp application. I was so scared because all the photos and videos were ones I had taken at the demonstrations,” she says.
“My whole body was numb. I thought that we were being targeted and that they knew from their intelligence who we were. We were all so scared.”
The second time her was checked was only three days ago, and Sima says, since then, she doesn’t feel like she is able to leave to house and be safe to walk freely.
Shahnaz (pseudonym) is another woman whose mobile phone was searched by the Taliban in Kabul. Out of fear of Taliban, she avoids main roads and checkpoints when walking. As a reporter, she needs to be able to have a smartphone with her and make recordings, but she is terrified of having her phone checked every time.
She has witnessed women’s mobile phones being checked many times.
“I saw a Talib checking phones at a checkpoint in the Naqash area of Barchi. I quickly got out of the car and went from alley to alley. Suddenly I realized that I was completely lost and I didn’t know where I was. I cried all the way back,” she says.
“What a time we live in. The group is searching our photos and videos for any sign of a relationship with strangers. That’s completely illogical and inhumane.”
Qamar, 24, says her phone was searched by Taliban forces about 20 days ago while she was in Kote Sangi, west Kabul. The men read her messages between her and her fiance, but did not believe her when she said he was her fiancé. She was asked to prove that it was not a secret relationship.
“I found it both funny and scary when he asked ‘Who is this boy texting you?’ I said, ‘He is my fiance.’ Unfortunately, I didn’t have any photos of our engagement. So I was forced to call my fiance and ask him to quickly send some photos of our engagement party. Finally they accepted that he was my fiance. This treatment from the Taliban is just embarrassing.”
Women’s rights activist, Mah Paikar, says this increase in surveillance of women is a deliberate ploy to sow more fear and terror into women.
“What do the Taliban want to prove by looking at private pictures of women without veils on women’s phones and reading their messages?” she asks. “They want to insist they have the right to do anything at all to an Afghan citizen. But this only shows their weakness and ignorance.”
A number of women speaking with Rukhshana Media say the public space for women is getting more narrow by the day, as the Taliban impose strict laws against their movement, education, and employment. Women are also banned from women are banned from going to parks, public baths, stadiums, and other public places. Their restrictions are compounded further with this fear of punishment over personal matters.
Since the Taliban regained power in mid-August last year, they have consistently worked on restricting women’s freedoms with dozens of decrees relating only to women.
