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Refugee from Taliban offers virtual tours of her homeland
But she remains passionate about showing outsiders the beauty of her country, even if few tourists currently dare visit.
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Afghan refugee and activist for women's rights Fatima Haidari gives an online virtual tour of Herat, Afghanistan, from her home in Milan, Italy, on February 7, 2023. A potential target of the Taliban, young feminist Fatima Haidari had to flee Afghanistan to find refuge in Italy. Now she organises virtual tourist tours of her country to finance clandestine courses for Afghan women deprived of an education.
(AFP /Piero Cruciatti )
F
orced to flee by the Taliban, Fatima Haidari now offers virtual tours of Afghanistan from her new home in Italy -- with the proceeds funding secret English classes for women there.
From her student flatshare in Milan, Haidari leads cyber-tourists around the western Afghan city of Herat, using Zoom to show them the grand mosque with its glazed tiles, the citadel and the bustling bazaar.
The 24-year-old worked as a tour guide in Herat before fleeing when the Taliban took power in August 2021, and is now studying international politics at Milan's Bocconi university.
But she remains passionate about showing outsiders the beauty of her country, even if few tourists currently dare visit.
"When you hear about Afghanistan, you think of war, terror and bombs," Haidari told AFP in the little kitchen she shares with four other students.
"I want to show the world the beauty of the country, its culture and its history."
Organised through British tour operator Untamed Borders, the events draw people from Britain to Australia, Germany and India.
