Muslim-fearing nation and fearful Muslim nation rumored building biometric monitor network

Two of the world’s most rigidly authoritarian regimes have deep-seated problems with Islam and intend to erase their problems using heavy oppression backed by biometric surveillance.

The nations are Afghanistan and China, and a weirder pair of biometrics allies is hard to find. They share a short mountain border and not much else.

Afghanistan roots out any religion except Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism. Its government is a buyer of facial recognition systems deployed to purify the culture.

China’s autocratic and opposition-phobic leaders would like to end religious thought and practice altogether, especially that of the nation’s large Muslim Uyghur community. China has become the world’s biggest player in biometric surveillance by perfecting blanket monitoring and oppression of the Uyghurs.

This week, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Interior Minister reportedly said “the analysts” are preparing to survey the nation’s biometrics security situation as a first step to letting contracts.

TOLOnews, a nominally independent news publisher based in Kabul, quotes to the spokesman saying 65,000 cameras already have been installed since 2021, all without a single signed contract with any country.

It is unclear if facial recognition plays a part in the present infrastructure.

The not-insignificant network reportedly has had no impact on preventing crime, but it has helped arrest an undisclosed number of suspects.

There are discrepancies in the spokesman’s account (one of which is brought up in the TOLOnews article).

According to New York-based The China Project, a news and business-services company, Uyghurs who fled to Afghanistan during China’s Cultural Revolution report fearing the sight of Huawei cameras in their adopted home country.

China Project says facial recognition powerhouse Huawei and the Taliban, the ruling religious fundamentalists, signed a contract in August for hardware and facial recognition software.

It is unknown if Huawei phones are part of the rumored deal, but if they are, China Project says “compulsory” software in them could completely open the devices to the government.

Afghanistan is desperately poor despite what might be the richest and most varied minerals and metals in its mountains. And it is virtually untapped. Leases to Chinese government officials and businesses would pay for a dense camera-and-telecommunications network.

Article Topics

Afghanistan  |  biometrics  |  China  |  facial recognition  |  government purchasing  |  Huawei