Amidst the ancient artefacts of Afghanistan‘s National Museum, a seemingly ordinary tour group stood out for one extraordinary reason: every member, including their guide, was a woman.
This all-female gathering, led by one of Afghanistan’s pioneering female tour guides, represents a quiet but potent challenge to the Taliban‘s severe impositions on girls and women.
Somaya Moniry, 24, embodies this pioneering spirit. Unaware that tour guiding existed as a profession or even a concept, she stumbled upon the idea while seeking to improve her English language skills online, discovering Couchsurfing, an application designed to connect travellers with local hosts.
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?’”
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…
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