Reaction to the closure of Internet cafés in Kabul

Journalist Abbas Daiyar has an interesting blog post on this month’s decision by the Afghan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority to close 17 Internet cafés in the capital. The cafés had been warned not to allow their customers to view pornography or un-Islamic material.

Daiyar argues that imposing such bans will not combat "moral corruption": 

"By shutting down the internet cafes, it’s no solution. Internet users in Afghanistan are very few, mostly in capital Kabul. People don’t have access to internet connectivity at homes through broadband or other services widely, thus most go to the net cafes. A crackdown on cafes will cause problems for the little number of people who need surfing for study and other needs, but the graph of pornographic surfing won’t decrease."

Daiyar has also recently written a blog post for CNN in which he comments on the prospect of talks with the Taliban. He suggests that the current situation is "such a mess" that "it’s naïve to expect the current attempts at talks will succeed".