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KABUL: They wandered through the museum, listening attentively as their guide explained the antiquities in display cabinets. It could have been any tour group, anywhere in the world. But there was something unusual about this one.
The group of foreigners visiting the National Museum of Afghanistan was made up only of women. Its guide was a woman, too — one of the first Afghan female tour guides in a country whose Taliban rulers impose the severest restrictions on girls and women anywhere in the world.
Somaya Moniry, 24, hadn’t known that tour guides existed, as a profession or even as a concept. But while browsing the Internet for help on improving her English language skills, she stumbled upon Couchsurfing, an app where travelers connect with locals and stay in their homes.
After hosting a traveler, “I became very passionate about it and it was very interesting for me,” Moniry said. “It was very unique. I have never heard about it before, so I said: ‘Why not (do) this?’”
Looking for the positive
As she showed that first visitor around her hometown in western Afghanistan, she saw a new side to her country.
“Most of the things that we have heard (about Afghanistan) was just … negativity. The focus of the people, focus of the media, focus of headlines, all of them were just the negativity. And definitely we get influenced by that,” Moniry said.
But for her, Afghanistan is far more nuanced. While there are undoubtedly problems in a place recovering from decades of war and chaos, there is also another side to the complex, stunning country. Her love for her homeland runs deep, and she is eager to share it. She hopes to gradually change people’s perceptions.
“Whenever … I saw all of that natures, all those beauty, all those positivity, it changed my view totally,” Moniry said in her enthusiastic English. “And definitely this can be also for other people.”
One of those visitors is Australian Suzanne Sandral. She originally wanted to see Afghanistan in the 1960s but the pressures of having a family kept her away. Now at 82, she was part of Moniry’s women-only tour group in Kabul.
Afghanistan surprised her.
“It’s not what I expected at all. I expected to feel rather fearful. I expected to be given a lot of ... accusatory looks. Not at all,” she said during a pause in sightseeing. “Wherever you go in the streets, if you smile at someone and give them a little nod or say hello, you get a terrific response. So it’s very different.”
Jackie Birov, a 35-year-old independent traveler from Chicago who was not part of the tour group, called the Afghan people “unbelievably hospitable.”
However, “I’m very aware that I have a lot more freedom than local women,” she said.
A fledgling industry
Four decades of war have kept tourists away from Afghanistan. But while the Taliban’s takeover of power in August 2021 sent thousands of Afghans fleeing and shocked the world, the end of its insurgency against the previous US-backed government also marked a sharp drop in violence.
Attacks still occasionally occur, mainly by a Daesh affiliate, and Western countries advise against all travel to Afghanistan. Still, the improved security is increasingly attracting foreign visitors drawn by the dramatic scenery, millennia of history and a deeply ingrained culture of hospitality.
Tourism is a fledgling industry, with annual visitors in the low thousands. Most are independent adventure travelers. But guided package tours are increasing from countries as diverse as China, Greece, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government is keen to welcome them. Isolated on the international stage — officially recognized only by Russia, which did so in July — the government sees how potentially lucrative tourism could be.
Tourist visas, typically single-entry ones valid for stays of up to 30 days, have become relatively simple to obtain from the few embassies that issue them. Regular flights connect Kabul with major transit hubs such as Dubai and Istanbul.
A question of ethics
For some, the idea of visiting Afghanistan as a tourist is morally abhorrent, particularly given the government’s treatment of women.
Girls are banned from education above primary school level, and women live under myriad restrictions. The government dictates what they can wear in public, where they can go and who they can go with. They cannot walk in parks or eat in restaurants. Beauty salons are banned. A very limited number of professions, such as teaching and carpet weaving, are open to them.
And the rules can change quickly.
But those involved in tourism point to the positive effects that visiting Afghanistan can have.
“I truly believe in ethical tourism,” said Zoe Stephens, 31, a British tour leader at Koryo Tours, a company specializing in unusual destinations. “I believe that you can divide politics and people, and that is the main thing for me. … A country is not a sum of its politics. It’s a sum of so much more, it’s a sum of its culture, its history, its food, and especially in Afghanistan, its people.”
Glimpses into the women’s world
Of the three recent tours Stephens led in Afghanistan, two were women-only. Working with local female guides, including Moniry, they combine key attractions with visits to women’s centers and cooking and embroidery classes from local women — worlds that are closed to male travelers.
“We always try and do something a little bit different that really makes our tours unique, as well as something that kind of gives back to the community,” Stephens said. “So I felt that working with the female tour guides does both of those things really well.”
The groups are small — one had eight women, the other three — but the company is looking to build a network of female guides across Afghanistan.
“What we try and do with this tour, especially the women’s tour, is conquer those ethical concerns,” Stephens said. “The idea is to learn about the lives of Afghan women in context.”