Afghans use Citizen-style public safety app to dodge violence in Kabul

As the Taliban imposes its draconian rule in Kabul, residents of the city are turning to a crowdsourced public safety app to help them dodge violence, checkpoints and other threats. 

The app, called “Ehtesab,” gives iPhone and Android users real-time updates on emergencies in the city of 4.4 million, which fell to the Taliban last week. It bears a strong resemblance to Citizen, the controversial public safety app popular in US cities like New York and Los Angeles that also sends out safety alerts to nearby users. 

Ehtesab — which translates to “accountability” in Dari and Pashto — first launched in March of 2020, but has gained increased relevance during the Taliban’s resurgence. The app’s fact-checkers comb through social media and user-submitted reports to verify emergencies, then send out notifications to users who are nearby, 26-year-old founder and CEO Sara Wahedi told The Post. 

Wahedi said usage has spiked in recent weeks as the Taliban have taken Kabul. Ehtesab’s 20 staffers, many of whom are women, have scrambled to keep the app up and running while working from home to avoid a potential Taliban crackdown. 

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