Updated July 2, 2024 at 5:55 p.m.
“Life under the Taliban is not that bad.”
Is this sentence — which recently made headlines — enough to heal our memory and erase the horrific scenes of hundreds of Afghans clinging to an aircraft to flee the country as the Taliban took over control of the country in 2021?
Those who appeared in these pictures were Afghan people who lived a miserable life during the first period of the Taliban rule, and suffered through the terrorism and oppression the movement practiced in the late 1990s. They know that Taliban’s return means the complete elimination of all margins of freedom. Otherwise they would not have endangered their lives with those terrifying scenes.
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The echoes of this sentence and the subsequent marketing campaign to politically whitewash the Taliban movement have reverberated in Arab entertainment content, through videos of travelers who suddenly flocked to Afghanistan from around the region.
The Taliban has invested heavily in the male Arab YouTubers and influencers to promote the rosy life in Afghanistan under its rule, and these videos are widely viewed.
It is interesting to follow “vlogs” traveling to a “dark place” that we know only through unfortunate incidents in the news, including daily violations against women, the LGBTQ+ community, and other minorities.
Power of entertainment
These videos aim to legitimize the Taliban government, which still does not enjoy international recognition, due to persistent concerns over issues of women’s education and human rights. In a video by Jordan-born, Saudi-bred Joe Hattab, one of the most famous Arab travel influencers, we hear praises about the achievements of the Taliban government and what he claims are new policies of openness.
Hattab, who’s based in Dubai and has 12.9 million YouTube followers, was apparently lured in to make the video because Taliban officials permitted him to use drones for his filming. He noted in the video how some Arab countries prohibit the use of drones — as if the use of drones is a standard for freedom and civilization!
The jihad-friendly videos can also be explained by the war in Gaza.
The videos of Arab travelers reconciling with the concept of jihad in one way or another can also be explained by the war in Gaza. There’s a fertile environment now in which the Arab public welcomes ideas linked to jihad, which in their view might lead to lifting the oppression of the Palestinian people.
The Taliban had launched a major media campaign following Israel’s complete blockade of Gaza in November, timed with the opening of Mullah Omar Mosque, with speeches expressing support for Muslims and the Palestinian cause. The mosque, which architecturally replicates the shape of the Dome of the Rock in Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, was built on the highest mountain peak in the capital, Kabul.
The mosque reflects a symbolic image of the Islamic jihadist resistance and its consequences, with an image that combines the Dome of the Rock with an immense flag of the Taliban government.
That image was documented by Arab travelers’ cameras and accompanied by comments encouraging the Taliban project, which appears to be seeking to exploit the cause of the people of Gaza to promote its dismal ideas.
Jihad to Joe to Jihad
For his part, Joe Hattab had never shown any sign of extremism in his videos, presenting himself as a YouTuber from a culturally neutral background, with a Western stage name that replaced his given one: Jihad. (Several celebrities who share the same name also use pseudonyms, including Syrian actor Jihad Abdo, who chose the name Jay).
But Hattab returned to using his real name in the videos of his trip to Afghanistan. He was praised by his tour guides and wore clothes of the Afghan mujahideen to appear in a completely different image than the one he carefully curated over the years.
By comparing the videos published by both Joe Hattab and Ibn Hattuta from their trips to Afghanistan, we notice that Hattab presents to his followers an assessment that is completely consistent with the Taliban’s promotional rhetoric for its government.
He repeats, while filming weapons stores that are more widespread in the markets than grocery and vegetable stores, that weapons are only sold to recruits, and that Afghanistan is a safe country, literally repeating what is said in the videos of Afghan YouTubers.
Kalashnikovs in the market
As for Ibn Hattuta, he seems less flattering than Hattab. Instead of staying in a five-star hotel — a kind of hotel not easy to find in Afghanistan — we see him moving around the country, visiting marginalized places, and witnessing some of the suffering of the Afghan people. Still, there is no criticism of the Taliban in his videos.
Ibn Hattuta, who boasts 2.35 million followers on YouTube, points out that life under the Taliban was not that bad, except for women. He points to the issue as if women’s lives are a marginal matter that does not deserve much attention — like saying that food is delicious but lacks salt.
Ibn Hattuta videos also open the door to accepting the Taliban government, but at least he does not lavish praise, nor does he portray life in Afghanistan as a project of paradise on earth after recovering from the effects of American intervention, as Hattab does.
In his videos, Ibn Hattuta tries to reflect the real life in Afghanistan. He films the same scenes of popular markets where weapons are widespread. There is no denying that buying weapons in Afghanistan is easier than buying transportation tickets and that weapons are available to all men.
Ibn Hattuta mirrors the salacious and interesting details, interviews Kalashnikov and rocket-launcher sellers and discusses jihadists. The discussion seems friendly, perhaps because he is a Palestinian YouTuber, and because the Palestinian issue is being exploited there and grabs the attention of the Afghan public.
Ibn Hattuta’s Afghanistan videos largely stick to the travel theme. He shows the beauty of nature there, which seems truly distinctive; the popular dishes and cheap hotels which make Afghanistan appear as a distinctive tourist destination.
But in the clips in which he wanders the streets, films people’s lives, and does random interviews. We notice that poverty and misery is indeed widespread throughout the country.
Afghanistan’s streets are crowded with men, with no traces of women.
Perhaps what distinguishes Ibn Hatuta’s videos is that he went to remote places and villages in Afghanistan. He saw farmers complaining about the starvation in their villages during the winter season. He heard their timid laments about the Taliban’s unfulfilled pledges to pave roads to the capital.
Being a women is a crime
Such videos show Afghanistan’s streets are crowded with men, with no traces of women. Ibn Hattuta pointed to that matter as if he were mentioning a simple problem. “Unfortunately, women are prohibited from entering public parks or tourist places, even with the presence of a mahram (a male relative),” he said.
Ibn Hattuta didn’t address women’s issues seriously and briefly refers to travel in Afghanistan as for “males only.” In essence, being a woman in Afghanistan is a crime in itself, which is consistent with the way of life there, where suppression and killing of women has become a routine matter.
The Taliban only allow women to teach young girls and practice nursing.
Women’s rights have not improved despite the Taliban’s pledges to respect women, and across the country, the main concern for security personnel and checkpoints is to marginalize women and prevent mixing between the sexes.
Women have been barred from continuing their education since the Taliban took power. Secondary education, religious schools, and private education have been prohibited for women, and the maximum age for girls’ education has been set at 12 years. Women have also been dismissed from their jobs in various government and private sectors, asked to send their male relatives as a replacement. The Taliban only allow women to teach young girls and practice nursing.
Nothing can beautify life in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. Nobody should promote a country whose government practices terrorism against its people daily, where streets are filled with weapons and the smell of death.
*Originally published March 5, 2024, this article was updated July 2, 2024 with enriched media and up-to-date following numbers.
