But it’s not just female students that have been affected – teachers like Zabi, who used to make a living through online teaching, have been similarly hit by the ban.<\/p>\n
Zabi says he had previously worked as a journalist in Pakistan, but found no opportunities in the field when he returned to Afghanistan. He decided to open an English teaching centre – but was forced to take this online when authorities imposed restrictions on educational institutes, he says.<\/p>\n
“I had men and women in my classes – up to 70 or 80 students at a time. My students were happy and our lessons went smoothly,” he said. “They were all preparing for the IELTS [a standardised English test] and all their learning depended on the internet. The research, the practice tests, the official exams, everything.”<\/p>\n
Zabi, who also lives in the east of the country, adds that there is no IELTS centre in Afghanistan, so the only option for students is to take one online. <\/p>\n
“Two days ago, about 45 of my students were in the middle of an exam when the internet was cut off. They had been preparing for it for months, but they missed the opportunity. It was heartbreaking for them – and for me as their teacher.”<\/p>\n
He adds that he constantly gets calls from his students who don’t know what to do. <\/p>\n
“They keep calling me asking ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ For the boys, there are still some English centres open, but for my female students, this was their last chance. And now even that is gone.”<\/p>\n
Prior to Monday’s shutdown, many of the interviewees say that there is still the option of being connected to mobile data – but that this is far too expensive for most, and that connectivity is patchy. A monthly plan with 100GB of data costs 3,500 Afghani, or around $50 (\u00a337). In contrast, Wifi used to cost around 1,000 Afghani a month – which could be further split between a few students. <\/p>\n
According to an earlier UNDP report, Afghanistan’s per capita income stood at $306 in 2024. <\/p>\n
Zabi says he will need to leave the country if the internet is not restored soon – saying he has no other way of earning a living. <\/p>\n
The Taliban have yet to give an official reason for the shutdown. They had earlier said an alternative route for internet access would be created, but did not give any more details. <\/p>\n
Anas, a money changer in Takhar province, says his business has faced “enormous problems” since the internet shutdown, saying that much of his work depends on the internet. <\/p>\n
“Our business has been affected by about 90%,” he says. “Yesterday, my brother who is also my business partner tried to send an email to a client. He couldn’t get it through.”<\/p>\n
But his main concern are his three daughters – all of whom used to take online classes. <\/p>\n
“The night before, we heard the Taliban had cut internet access in Mazar, and my eldest daughter came to me with tears in her eyes and said she feared the same would happen here. <\/p>\n
“Their last opportunity to study is now gone. Seeing my children so helpless… [that was] the hardest for me. Only God knows what will happen to them and to me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But it’s not just female students that have been affected – teachers like Zabi, who used to make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1638,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-170584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-internet","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}