Afghanistan’s female guides are challenging stereotypes, one tour at a time
Tourism is a fledgling industry in Afghanistan, with annual visitors in the low thousands, but guided package tours are increasing
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.
Somaya Moniry, 24, had not 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 travellers connect with locals and stay in their homes.
After hosting a traveller, “I became very passionate about it and it was very interesting for me”, Moniry said. “It was 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] were 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.