Maryam’s husband was so outraged when he discovered the device she had smuggled into their Kabul home that he beat her with his fists and a whip. The contraband was a cell phone.

“My husband’s family is very traditional,” says Maryam, a 24-year-old sheathed in a blue burqa who declines to give her last name. “They are very much against mobile phones and freedom for women.”

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