KABUL—A growing number of educational institutions are attempting to reach Afghanistan's girls and women digitally in their homes, and Sofia logs in to class on a laptop in Kabul for an online English course.

Sofia's computer screen, however, freezes when the teacher asks her to read a passage.

She checks her connection several times and asks, "Can you hear me?"

Her computer eventually restarts after a brief hiccup.

As the class begins to move forward once more, a fellow student who is also frustrated with the poor communication sighs, "As usual."

Sofia, 22, is one of many Afghan women and girls who are turning to the internet as a last resort to get around the Taliban government's bans on employment and education.

Taliban officials have closed girls' high schools, denied them admission to universities, and prohibited the majority of women from working for non-governmental organizations, citing problems including those related to Islamic dress.

The explosion of the internet has been one of the most notable changes since the Taliban first held power from 1996 to 2001.

When the Taliban were ousted from power in the weeks following the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, almost no one had access to the internet.

According to the World Bank, 18% of the population had internet access after nearly two decades of Western-led intervention and engagement with the rest of the world.

The Taliban government permits girls to study independently at home and has not taken any steps to outlaw the internet, which is used by its officials to post announcements on social media.

But in a nation where 97% of the population lives in poverty, girls and women face a variety of issues, such as power outages and painfully slow internet speeds.

We have a terrible, terrible internet problem for girls in Afghanistan," Sofia said.

After the Taliban took control in 2021, the enrollment at Rumi Academy, her online school, increased from 50 to more than 500 students, the majority of whom were female.

Despite receiving hundreds of additional applications, the academy is currently unable to admit students due to a lack of funding for teachers, equipment, and internet plans.

After being forced to leave her university in December, Sakina Nazari spent a week taking a virtual language course at her residence in the west of Kabul. But after battling the issues, she gave up in frustration.

"I was unable to continue," she admitted.

In Afghanistan, getting online is too difficult, and we occasionally only get 30 minutes of power per day.

Afghanistan's mobile internet was ranked last out of 137 nations by Seattle-based Ookla, and Afghanistan's fixed internet was ranked second out of 180 nations.

Some Afghans have begun pleading with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to bring the satellite internet service Starlink to Afghanistan, as it has in Iran and Ukraine. They have done this by posting requests for assistance on Twitter, which Musk owns.

Sofia added, "We also ask Elon Musk for assistance."

"If they were able to introduce that in Afghanistan, it would be very, very impactful for women."

Requests for comments were not answered by SpaceX spokespersons.

Afghanistan's students are being accommodated as best they can by online schools.

Speaking on behalf of the online University of the People, which has received more than 15,000 applications from Afghan women and girls since the Taliban took control, Daniel Kalmanson said that students could attend lectures whenever conditions permitted and that professors would grant extensions for assignments and tests if students experienced connectivity issues.

The nonprofit organization Learn Afghanistan, which operates a number of community-based schools where some teachers conduct classes remotely, makes its curricula freely accessible in the two main languages spoken in Afghanistan.

The organization also made sure that lessons were accessible via radio, which is frequently used in rural areas, according to executive director Pashtana Durrani. She claimed she was collaborating with global businesses to find fixes for shoddy internet access but she was unable to provide more details.

"Digital devices need to be pumped into Afghanistan," said Durrani. "Afghanistan needs to be a country where the internet is accessible."

After years of war, Sofia claimed, Afghan women were accustomed to difficulties and would persist no matter what.

We still have dreams, and we are never going to give up.