The Taliban’s police force uses 90,000 CCTV cameras to monitor the lives of 6 million people. From license plates to facial expressions, nothing beats their eyes.
“We monitor the entire city of Kabul from here,” Khalid Zadran, a spokesperson for the Taliban police chief told the BBC.
Zadran also said that in certain neighbourhoods, if they spot something suspicious or criminal, they reach out to the local police.
Although the authorities say that surveillance will help fight crime, critics fear this can be used to monitor strict morality codes enforced by the Taliban under the Sharia Law. This also shows the growing sophistication in the way the Taliban operates and enforces law and order.
The system also has the option to track people through facial recognition. Images pop up on one corner of the screen categorised by age, gender, and whether they have a beard or mask.
“On clear days, we can zoom in on individuals [who are] kilometres away,” says Zadran.
Amnesty International, a non-governmental organisation focused on human rights, says installing cameras “under the guise of ‘national security’ sets a template for the Taliban to continue their draconian policies that violate fundamental rights of people in Afghanistan – especially women in public spaces”.
Women fear such surveillance systems will monitor women’s hijabs. Human rights advocates, protesters often live in secrecy and this might exacerbate their situation. However, the Taliban has said that only the city police use surveillance and not its morality police – Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Ministry.
Shella (name changed), who has a house in central Kabul, said that the Taliban asked thousands of afghanis from households to pay for cameras installed near their homes. “If families refused to pay [for the cameras], they were threatened with water and power cuts within three days. We had to take loans to cover the costs”, she said.
“People are starving – what good are these cameras to them?” she added.
International aid has been stopped to Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power which makes it hard for 30 million people who are in need of aid.