A simple errand to a local shop has become a daunting task for 25-year-old Tahmina, a former teacher living in Kabul.
Even a small misstep – a clumsily worn headscarf, a stray word or the absence of a male guardian – could be a reason for the Taliban’s morality police to stop and question her; a question that could easily lead to her detention.
“The Taliban have cameras everywhere – you feel you are constantly being watched. They are waiting for you to break their laws so they can come and take you away,” said Tahmina.
In 2023, two years after they swept back in triumph into Kabul, the Taliban announced a plan to install about 60,000 CCTV cameras around the capital and other cities, part of a growing surveillance system to enforce Afghanistan’s return to Islamist rule.
Within a year, more than 90,000 Chinese-built security cameras had appeared across Kabul. In the city’s northern neighbourhood of Khair Khana alone, about 8,000 cameras keep watch.
Taliban officials assured civilians that the surveillance project was intended to stamp out crime. But Khalid Zadran, a Kabul police spokesperson, warned ominously at the time: “We can see everything happening in different parts of the city and monitor public activities.”
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