Ignoring warnings, tourists are heading to a former no-go country

Yi-Pin Lin, an associate professor at Tufts University in the United States, proudly says he has holidayed in 120 nations over the past decade.

But there was one country he had always dreamed of visiting, only to be frightened off by decades of war, kidnappings and terrorism: Afghanistan.

The site of the remains of the renowned Buddha statues in Bamiyan.Credit: iStock

With the end of the Afghan war in 2021, the country’s new Taliban rulers began encouraging tourists to visit. So last month, Lin packed his bags, paid $275 for a visa, and boarded a flight to Kabul, the Afghan capital.

“When I told my friends where I was going, they all thought I was crazy,” he says. “They said it was too dangerous.”

Lin, 43, is part of a small but growing vanguard of venturesome tourists making their way to Afghanistan, disregarding dire warnings issued by their governments. The Australian government’s Smartraveller website still lists the country on its “do not travel” list, due to “the extremely dangerous security situation and the very high threat of terrorism and kidnapping”.

Over the past three years, Taliban officials say, 14,500 foreign tourists have visited the isolated, poverty-stricken nation. They have arrived with hard currency that Afghanistan desperately needs.

The Shrine of Ali, also known as the Blue Mosque, in Mazar-i-Sharif.Credit: Getty Images

Many tourists have experienced the country’s traditional hospitality while visiting its famous mosques, its towering mountain ranges, its scenic high deserts and the remains of the renowned Buddha statues in Bamiyan.

In the minds of many around the world, Afghanistan has conjured another image since the Taliban takeover: something akin to a prison. The country has become notorious for its suffocating restrictions on women, which have essentially erased them from public life.

The Taliban’s rise to power, however, has also brought a relative calm to the country with the end of the 20-year war.

Terrorist attacks continue to challenge the Taliban administration, including one this month by an Islamic State affiliate that killed a high-ranking official. But the suicide bombings and roadside explosions that inflicted mass death during the war — mostly carried out by the Taliban themselves — have all but ceased.

The bazaar in Kabul’s Old City.Credit: iStock

The government has assured tourists that Afghanistan is safe, scenic, welcoming and a bargain to boot.

“Ninety-five per cent of tourists have a negative idea about Afghanistan because of incorrect media information and propaganda worldwide,” says Khobaib Ghofran, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Information and Culture in Kabul.

When tourists visit the country, he says, they “see it is completely normal. When they get home, they share their photos and the positive information they found in Afghanistan.”

Taliban officials say they rely on tourists, especially bloggers and YouTubers, to extol the virtues of visiting Afghanistan. The government promotes tourism on its official websites and on social media, and Afghanistan’s 3000 tourism agencies advertise overseas.

Despite painful memories among Afghans of US aerial bombings and night raids, American tourists are as welcome as anyone else, Ghofran says.

He says guards are provided for tourists who request security, but visitors are not required to be accompanied by government escorts, as in North Korea.

However, foreign businesspeople and journalists – and many Afghans – are routinely monitored by agents of the General Directorate of Intelligence.

A small percentage of foreign visitors are women, tourism officials say. Ghofran and Mawlavi Ahmadullah Muttaqi, the information and culture director for Herat province, say there are no written strictures governing how female tourists should dress and behave in public.

“They can see for themselves our culture here,” Muttaqi says, adding that female visitors should respect it by wearing long, concealing garments and covering their hair with a headscarf. They are not required to wear burqas or cover their faces, according to Muttaqi and Ghofran.

Local women are treated very differently to tourists.Credit: AP

The distinctions between Afghan women and female tourists can be startling.

“I know women are treated bad in Afghanistan, but as a woman, I see that everyone acts very nice to me,” says Marino Sakata, 23, a tourist from Japan who was travelling alone in Kabul and plans to return next year.

Sakata wore loose-fitting slacks, yellow sneakers and a black coat whose hood covered her hair and part of her face – a fashion choice that drew sharp glances from some Afghans on the capital’s streets. She is considering buying a headscarf to better adhere to Afghan customs.

Pausing in conversation, she holds up her smartphone to show a message through Google Translate: “Being a foreigner, I find it difficult that people stare at me.”

Male tourists, too, are expected to dress modestly, but they do not face the same intense scrutiny as women.

Greg Ernest, 67, a retired British consultant who visited Afghanistan for nine days last month, says the Afghan guide he hired told him to wear a shalwar kameez, the traditional clothes worn by Afghan men.

Ernest, who says he had visited every country in the world except Afghanistan before reaching Kabul, explained that he was concerned about his safety when he arrived.

“I was slightly worried as a Brit,” he says, citing Britain’s prominent military role in the US-led coalition. “But I was surprised at how well I was received. People were very hospitable.”

Tourists have visited from China, Russia, Ireland, Poland, Canada, Taiwan, Germany, France, Pakistan, Estonia, Sweden and elsewhere, tourism officials say. Travellers typically get their visa en route to Afghanistan, often at the Taliban-run consulates in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, or Peshawar, Pakistan.

Many venture to Bamiyan province, west of Kabul, to see the remnants of the Buddha statues. Most tour the area uneventfully but in May, three Spanish tourists and one Afghan were killed in the province. It was the first deadly attack on foreign tourists since the Taliban regained power.

Carved from sandstone cliffs more than 1600 years ago, the two Buddhas once stood 38 and 53 metres tall. They were destroyed in early 2001 by the Taliban under a campaign to remove all “idolatrous” depictions of human figures.

Today, the Buddhas remain an awkward subject for the Taliban government. Asked about the Buddhas, Hurmatullah Fazli, the acting tourism director in Bamiyan, replies: “Next question.”

Jin, a Chinese tourist who asked that his surname not be published, says the Buddhas held deep emotional resonance for many Chinese, who represent the world’s largest population of Buddhists, at 244 million.

He says he dreamed for years of visiting the statues – and “then my heart was broken” when they were destroyed.

Jin fought back tears as he stood amid the rubble of the Buddhas last month. “This place is sacred to us,” he says.

The Taliban’s destruction of archaeological artifacts and ancient artworks at the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul in early 2001 is also a sensitive topic. The museum is popular with foreign tourists, along with the nearby Gardens of Babur.

Allen Ruppel, 63, a retired insurance company executive from the US, visited both sites last month. He says he was apprehensive about visiting Afghanistan, concerned that an American might encounter resentment or worse.

When he told his wife where he was going, she joked that “I can’t stop you, but I might get an Afghan hound to replace you”.

Ruppel, who wore a blue shalwar kameez, says he was surprised by how warmly he was received by Afghans and by how safe the country seems.

He would encourage his friends to “open your minds and take a fresh look at Afghanistan”.

Many tourists seem spellbound by the spectacular Afghan landscape and its wealth of historical and archaeological sites. The Silk Road crossed Afghanistan, creating a crossroads of cultures rich in history and artifacts.

Hiking a trail next to the deep-blue waters of mountain lakes in Band-e-Amir national park in central Afghanistan, beneath soaring peaks crusted with brilliant white snow, Lin is relaxed and exuberant.

“I’ve never felt unsafe here,” he says. “That’s what has most surprised me. I have to say it’s been an exotic experience.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.