Decree
Decree Translation
Date: 02/10/1403
The Taliban's Office for the Promotion of Virtue banned the use of smartphones in Jalalabad markets for women.
Taliban virtue officers are roaming the markets of Jalalabad city to prevent women from using smartphones, sources confirmed Friday, December 21.
The Taliban have warned women in the city that they will confiscate a smartphone if they find it. Earlier, the Taliban in Kandahar had declared the use of smartphones "haram" for women.
In Takhar, the Taliban's Office for the Promotion of Virtue has ordered shopkeepers to refrain from talking to women.
The ban enforced by the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice on women’s use of smartphones in Jalalabad, including market patrols and threats of confiscation, represents the coercive enforcement of digital exclusion through moral policing. Coupled with similar declarations in Kandahar Province and orders in Takhar Province restricting interaction with women, the measures indicate a coordinated expansion of gender-based isolation across physical and digital spaces. These actions systematically sever women’s access to information, communication, and economic participation while normalizing surveillance and confiscation as enforcement tools.
