Bbc Afghan service, Kabul
In a packed control center, surrounded by dozens of TV screens, Taliban police force proudly shows its newly-stalled network of 90,000 CCTV cameras-which has been used to observe everyday life of millions of people.
“From here we follow the whole town of Kabul,” says Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for the head of the Taliban police, pointing to one of the screens.
Authorities say such supervision will help fight crime, but critics are afraid that they will be used to suppress disagreements and monitor the strict morale code that carried out the Islamist Taliban government Under their interpretation of the Sharia law.
BBC are the first international journalists allowed to see the system in action.
Inside the control room, police officers sit in the rows watching live streams with thousands of cameras, holding the tables on the lives of six million people living in Kabul.
From car license plates to facial expressions, everything is monitored.
“In certain districts, when we notice groups of people and doubt that they could be involved in drug use, criminal activity or something suspicious, we quickly contact the local police,” says Zadran.
“They arrive quickly to explore the nature of the gathering.”
According to the previous government, the Kabulus threatened the attacks of Taliban and the so -called militants of the Islamic State, as well as the hinterland in high abductors and strong. When the Talibans took power in 2021, they promised to break the crime.
The dramatic increase in the number of surveillance cameras in the capital is a sign of growing sophistication in the way the Taliban implement the law and order. Before their return, there were only 850 cameras in the capital, according to a spokesman for the security forces that were taken from power.
However, in the last three years, the Taliban authorities have also introduced a number of draconian measures that limit the rights and freedoms of people, especially those women. The Talibana government has not formally recognized any other country.
The BBC surveillance system is shown in Kabul, it has the ability to monitor people towards recognizing their faces. At the corner of one screen image, they appear with each face categorized according to the age range, gender and whether they have a beard or face mask.
“In clear days we can zoom in individuals [who are] Kilometers away, “says Zadran, pointing out a high -scale camera that focuses on traffic traffic.
The Taliban even monitor their own staff. At the checkpoint, while the soldiers opened the trunk of the car for inspection, the operators focused their lenses, zoom in to review the content inside.
The Ministry of the Interior says that cameras “have significantly contributed to the improvement of security, suppressing the crime rates and the rapid arrest of the offender.” The introduction of CCTV and motorcycle controls has led to a decrease in crime rates of 30% between 2023 and 2024, but it is not possible to independently check these figures.
However, the rights for the rights are concerned about who is monitored and for how long.
Amnesty International says that installing the “National Security” cameras installing a template for the Taliban to continue their draconian policies that violate the fundamental rights of people in Afghanistan – especially women in public spaces. “
By law, women should not be heard outside their houses, although in practice it is not done strictly. Teens are prevented from approaching secondary and higher education. Women are forbidden from many forms of employment. In December, women who train as midwives and nurses told the BBC that they were ordered not to return to classes.
Although women are still visible on the streets of cities like Kabul, they must be worn with face covering.
Fariba*, a young graduate living with her parents in Kabul, couldn’t find a job since the Talibani came to power. She says BBC that there is “significant concern that surveillance cameras can be used to supervise women’s hijabs [veils]’
Talibani say that only city police have access to the CCTV system and spreading the virtue and prevention of jokes – the Morale Police – Taliban Morality – does not use.
But Fariba worries that the cameras will further threaten those who oppose the reign of the Taliban.
“Many individuals, especially former military members, advocate human rights and protest women, fight for freely and often live in secret,” she says.
“There is a significant concern that surveillance cameras will be used to monitor the hijab,” she says.
Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, says Afghanistan has no data protection laws that would regulate how to maintain and use the CCTV’s collected recordings.
Police say data are kept only three months, while, according to the Ministry of the Interior, the cameras do not represent a threat of privacy, because “with a special and fully confidential themselves, they operate from a special and fully confidential room determined and professional person in charge.”
The cameras are Chinese. The control room monitors and brands on the feeds that BBC Saw has been named Dahua, a Chinese company associated with the government. Earlier reports that the Talibani spoke with Chinese Huawei Technologies to buy cameras was rejected by the company. Talibana officials refused to answer the BBC questions where they received their equipment.
Some of the cost of installing a new network falls on the ordinary Afghans that control the system.
In a house in Central Kabul, the BBC spoke with Shell*, who was asked to pay some of the cameras installed on the streets near her house.
“Thousands of Afghans from every household requested,” she says. This is a large amount in a country where these women who have a job can earn only about 5000 Afghanists (£ 68; £ 54) per month.
The humanitarian situation in Kabul and Afghanistan generally remains uncertain after years of war. The country’s economy is in crisis, but international aid financing has been mostly stopped since the Talibani returned to power.
According to the United Nations, 30 million people need help.
“If the families refused to pay [for the cameras]They were threatened with water and an interruption of electricity within three days, “shell adds.” We had to take loans to cover the costs.
“People are starving – what are these cameras for them?”
Taliban say that if people do not want to contribute, they can make an official appeal.
“The participation was voluntary, and the donations were in hundreds, not thousands,” Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for the Taliban police, insists.
Despite the persuasion, the campaign for rights and within and outside Afghanistan are still worried about how such a powerful control system will be used.
Jaber, a vegetable salesman in Kabul, says cameras represent other ways in which Afghanians are made to feel powerless.
“We are treated as garbage, they are denied the opportunity to make a living, and the authorities consider us worthless,” he told the BBC.
“We can’t do anything.”
* *The names of women interviewed for this piece have been changed because of their security
In addition to the additional reporting of Peter Ball
