Bitcoin is aiding Afghanistan's human rights push

Digital currencies are providing Women in Afghanistan with the tools to stand up against an oppressive regime. 

That’s according to the Digital Citizen Fund (DCF) founder Roya Mahboob, who was speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the Bitcoin Policy Summit.

The tech entrepreneur and human rights advocate said Bitcoin and other crypto assets offered her sisters suffering under the Taliban’s restrictive rule a hope of bettering their lives. 

Ms Mahboob added that her organization provided Afghan women with financial and digital literacy through online and underground channels. A significant part of that training is on BTC ownership and use. She said Afghanistan’s restrictive setup made the premier cryptocurrency a survival tool, hence their teaching them how to transact in it. 

According to her, that restrictiveness also makes it easy for the women to understand it, explaining,  “It’s much easier for them to get it because it gives them a hope of financial freedom.”

Bitcoin is aiding Afghanistan’s human rights push

Ms Mahboob also stated that her initiative transcends the coin’s transactional aspects. She has integrated human rights aspects into her BTC campaigns by collaborating with the Human Rights Foundation. To her, the crypto asset’s decentralized nature made it a vital cog in pushing for the democratization of financial services in her country. 

Afghanistan’s prohibitive setup has for long prevented women from accessing financial services for different reasons. These include a lack of IDs, denial of rights to paid employment, restrictions on accessing education, and financial matters. This situation worsened with hardline Islamists seizing power. Banks denied Afghans who’d worked for the previous regime, civil society, women’s rights organisations, and services. 

However, Ms Mahboob explained that BTC and other cryptos were giving them the means to skirt the social and financial ostracization many still face. Their people-centric nature gave her and other rights campaigners hope of freeing Afghanistan’s oppressed from their economic shackles. 

Afghanistan’s Bitcoin campaign has a long way to go

Despite the steady gains that Ms. Mahboob’s BTC education campaign has made, it still faces significant challenges. The main obstacle is education as the entire Afghan womenfolk can’t access education, for four years since fundamentalists overran Kabul. That has meant using undercover schools at the peril of the learners and instructors. 

Moreover, the movement faces connectivity challenges, particularly in rural Afghanistan. The DCF depends on the internet to disseminate its educational material in a country with one of the lowest global internet coverage rates and strict censorship policies. Add to the complexity that comes with understanding crypto technology, and that makes reaching the target audience daunting.

Afghanistan has enforced a strict cryptocurrency ban since 2022, motivated by religious and economic policies under Taliban rule. Yet, crypto transactions remain active in underground markets, powered by peer-to-peer (P2P) networks that evade government control. Rooted in Sharia law, the ban has pushed crypto use into secrecy, where it continues to play a vital role in remittances and personal savings.

Officially, all forms of crypto transactions remain “haram” with authorities threatening severe reprisals for anyone undertaking them. What’s encouraging, though, is that an underground crypto market thrived. Whispers have even suggested Talibros are in it, perhaps indicating a change of tune. 

Other countries that have banned digital assets include Bangladesh, Nepal, Algeria, Morocco, and Bolivia. While crypto is welcomed in many parts of the world, these countries are wary of its volatility and decentralized nature.

Some also perceive it as a threat to their current monetary systems while being concerned about its use to support illicit activities like drug trafficking, money laundering, and terrorism. Several nations have outright banned digital currency, while others have tried to cut off any banking and financial system support essential for its trading and use.

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