My calls and emails to family in Afghanistan go unanswered. The Taliban's internet shutdown has left us all helpless | Shadi Khan Saif

"The internet was my lifeline, a slender thread connecting me from Australia to my family in Afghanistan, bridging continents and time zones. But that bridge has crumbled. Afghanistan, sitting in the heart of Asia, always felt like the crossroads of everything, while Australia, with its wide-open spaces, seemed like the faraway land. Yet, the Taliban's recent nationwide internet blackout has turned that sense of distance upside down."

"I used to join from Melbourne, alongside my brother in London and my sister in Pakistan, for our weekly video chats with Mama, other siblings and our nieces and nephews in Kabul. Mama would chide me for losing weight her gentle worry mixed with pride but I would insist it was all for getting healthier. She often called the internet her lifeline, her eyes quietly fixed on our faces, deep in thought, sometimes cursing the Taliban under her breath for their hardline policies against women."

"We tragically lost her this winter, her long illness compounded by the heartbreak of being separated from her children in an increasingly isolated Afghanistan. Our family chats have continued in her memory, cherishing the moments she loved most: sitting in the corner of our Kabul home next to a sunlit window overlooking the little orchard, the fruit trees and grapevines heavy with summer, a cup of tea in hand, quietly smiling at her grandchildren."

A Taliban decree ordered a sweeping nationwide shutdown of internet and telecommunications services, citing a leader's order aimed at curbing immorality. The blackout isolated millions of Afghans inside the country and across the diaspora, leaving them voiceless and cut off from regular communication. A family spread across Melbourne, London, Pakistan and Kabul relied on weekly video chats with their mother, who called the internet her lifeline and sometimes cursed the Taliban for hardline policies against women. The mother's long illness and death were compounded by enforced separation, and cherished memories of her sitting by a sunlit window are now inaccessible across a digital divide.

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