Orzala, from Rusi, said that while influencers with western passports “do freely roam, they represent photos and gain online fame,” these privileges refuse Afghan women, who are prohibited from schools, works or even walking freely in public without being accompanied by male guardians.
There are also moral and ethical dilemmas, he added, because tourism profits are indirectly risk to legitimize and financially maintain a regime that has institutionalized the “gender apartheid.”
As for the videos of influential people who show Afghan women smiling in the background, Orzala said: “This should never be confused with satisfaction or consent for current reality.”
“This is not a cultural exchange; it is neocolonial tourism dressed as an adventure,” he added.
Afghanistan visitors are still in the low thousands, since the country devastated by the war tries to rebuild their image under strict Islamic laws and customs, administered by the Taliban. Almost 9,000 foreigners visited in 2024, while almost 3,000 visited in the first three months of this year, according to an Associated Press report.
Together with travel influencers, some tourist companies are creating amazing videos that since then have been shyming taliban accounts in social networks in an attempt to attract more visitors.
An extravagant 50 -second video made by the Vlogger Yosaf Aryubi begins with a mysterious scene of three people with bags on their heads, allegedly supported by the men who are standing behind them, who are dressed like the taliban with rifles hung on their shoulders.
“We have a message for the United States,” says one of the armed men, before taking out the bag of one of the hostages, just to reveal a smiling tourist who gives a thumb up and says: “Welcome to Afghanistan!”
The video then cuts male tourists immersing themselves in picturesque lakes and walking through waterfalls, and even holding Rifles M4 that are revealed as replicas.
Not all influential see Afghanistan in that way. In another video, Youtuber Nolan Saumure, whose channel seal on the tour has 650,000 subscribers, acknowledges that he only interacted with the men during his trip there.
In a 35 -minute video entitled “Afghanistan has too much testosterone,” Saumure turns the camera to show a large multitude of Afghan men who invade him.
“It’s a full sausage festival here,” he says.
