3 years of Kabul fall: Taliban want you to see ‘other’ Afghanistan

This 15th August, India’s Independence Day, Afghanistan’s Islamist rulers are celebrating the third anniversary of capturing the capital, Kabul, even as the world continues to boycott them. Now the Taliban are testing a plan to mitigate their woes.

Afghanistan’s economy is struggling, infrastructure is poor, and poverty is literally killing people in many parts. But the Taliban won’t relent: public floggings and stoning are still happening, and women remain barred from college and work.

However, they seem to be working on a new strategy to divert attention: show the world another side of Afghanistan, a “beautiful” Afghanistan. The hardliners have gone out of their way to attract tourists.

Two “very friendly” Taliban soldiers welcomed British YouTuber Harry Jaggard at Kabul airport in late 2023. “I feel a lot safer in Kabul, Afghanistan, than I felt in downtown California, America. It’s crazy,” he says in a video.

US-born Samantha Shea, who runs the YouTube channel @SamanthaTaylorTravels, won’t tire of praising Afghanistan’s landscape, culture, food, and how everything is good under the Taliban regime. She is reportedly married and settled in Pakistan.

Travel influencers are an important part of the Taliban’s PR outreach. Afghanistan-based travel operators, supported by the regime, are offering up to 50 per cent discounts to social media influencers on tour packages that range between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 13 lakh for 12 days.

Since the Taliban’s return, dining alone, travelling alone, and socialising with other women in public have become harder for Afghan women. They must wear a head-to-toe burka and be accompanied by a male guardian to step out. But most of these rules don’t apply to foreign women tourists.

Though they still need to cover their heads in public, foreign women travellers visit markets, and restaurants, mix with males of any age, and even get photos clicked with armed Taliban members who don’t mind smiling for the camera.

Taliban say cheers

India Today’s Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) team found striking similarities in the behaviour patterns of foreign travel influencers. All of them are led by tour guides who keep telling them what not to film, where not to visit, and how not to behave. The narrative of their blogs is common: they project Afghanistan as a safe and off-beat destination and the Taliban as warm and welcoming, with an appeal: don’t believe the media.

“Tourists don’t feel that level of restrictions. Everywhere we went, we felt welcomed,” says a Ukrainian/American woman in her vlog. “Is Afghanistan safe? That depends on who you ask,” she adds.

Afghanistan has seen a significant rise in inbound foreign tourism since the Taliban reclaimed Kabul in 2021, primarily driven by tourists’ urge to travel to off-beat and dangerous places and the availability of flights from Pakistan and Dubai.

About 7,000 foreigners visited Afghanistan in 2023 compared to a mere 691 in 2021. The figure stood at 2,300 in 2022, according to the Associated Press. However, the US and a large number of other countries advise their citizens not to travel to Afghanistan for safety reasons.

Reports say the Taliban’s Tourist Directorate has been organising training classes for tour operators and guides that include lessons on how to interact with women tourists.

Afghanistan’s only five-star hotel, the Serena, has reopened its women’s spa and salon for foreign females after a months-long closure.

To counter negative perceptions and gain legitimacy, the Taliban have launched a propaganda push on social media sites, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and Instagram. Apart from photos and videos of beautiful landscapes and historical sites, part of it includes claims that connectivity has improved under the new rulers and that Taliban fighters have transformed into a professionally trained armed force that can perform.

Ahead of the third anniversary, pro-Taliban handles have flooded social media with soldiers performing manoeuvres and conducting drills using military equipment left behind by the US and allies.