RASC News Agency: On Saturday, the first day of Ramadan, Whitney Wright, an American adult film actress, released new images documenting her travels across various Afghanistan cities. In one particularly striking photograph, she is seen carrying a Kalashnikov rifle over her shoulder, raising questions about the nature of her visit. It appears that Wright is moving freely across the country under Taliban protection. Previously, she had shared footage of herself at Band-e Amir, Afghanistan’s renowned national park. Her visit to Band-e Amir is particularly controversial, given that the Taliban banned Afghan women from entering the site over a year and a half ago. At the time, Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban’s Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, justified the prohibition by asserting that “tourism is neither a religious obligation nor a necessity.”
Taliban decrees have further restricted Afghanistani women’s movement, prohibiting them from traveling beyond 72 kilometers without a male guardian and barring them from entering parks, restaurants, and gyms. Meanwhile, Wright shared images on Friday, March 1, from Kabul and Herat, featuring notable landmarks such as an Ariana Airlines aircraft, the intricately tiled ceiling of a shrine in Herat, a local shop, and rickshaws navigating a bustling street. However, she was absent from these images herself. Afghanistan International reached out to Wright for clarification regarding the timing and purpose of her visit, but she has yet to respond. The Taliban, too, have remained silent on the matter.
This incident underscores the Taliban’s stark double standard in their treatment of foreign tourists versus Afghanistani women. While local women face draconian travel restrictions, including being barred from leaving the country without a male escort, the Taliban actively facilitate the movement of foreign men and women, seemingly to craft a “positive” global image of their rule. Last year, a 29-year-old Brazilian traveler detailed his experience visiting Afghanistan under Taliban control. Despite his opposition to their ideology, he noted that he faced no restrictions while traveling alone perhaps, he speculated, because he was a foreigner. Similarly, previous images of Taliban members posing intimately with Chinese female tourists sparked widespread controversy, further highlighting the regime’s contradictory approach to gender and mobility.
