A look back at Koryo Tour’s first women’s tours to Afghanistan, and an honest discussion on tourism in Afghanistan today.
Koryo Tours just finished our first women’s tour to Afghanistan. Two of them, in fact.
This tour sold out in less than two weeks. So, we announced a second departure soon after.
In the end, we were in Afghanistan for over a month, travelling alongside local female tour guides as well as an entire crew.
Travelling Afghanistan is never a small operation.
We have multiple drivers, vehicles, guides, and support crews as we travel by road and air all across the country.
It’s quite the team.
And for our women’s tours to Afghanistan, the team is led by women, too.
Afghanistan has a special place in my heart. This place grows every time I visit. Having spent about 3 months in Afghanistan over the past year, coming to learn more about its people... Its culture... Its women... I’m always left with a profound sense of… amazement.
And a true reality check.
The country is full of some of the world’s most beautiful, resilient people.
Today, I want to reflect on my time in Afghanistan leading the first women-only tour to Afghanistan run by local female tour guides.
“No one who has spent time in Afghanistan has left unimpressed by its people’s hospitality, dignity, and firm sense of cultural identity.”
TJB, February 2022, Cambridge, MA
What Does a Women’s Tour to Afghanistan Look Like?
Our women’s tours to Afghanistan combine the highlights in Afghanistan, plus a unique cultural aspect, allowing you to truly get a deep understanding of the country.
More specifically, into the complex and nuanced lives of the women of Afghanistan.
We visit Afghanistan’s five main provinces. Starting in Kabul, we take a trip by road and air to Mazar, Bamiyan, Kandahar, and Herat.
Of course, we explore all that Afghanistan has to offer in terms of its incredible sites and landscapes - the blue mosque in Mazar, the mountains of the Hindu Kush mountain range, and the stunning blue of the Band-e-amir lake.
But, it's all with a bit of a twist.
Local Female Tour Guides
We travel alongside local female tour guides and take part in multiple women-focused activities.
From spending time at a women’s retreat centre to learning embroidery from the manager of a women's craft market, taking part in a traditional cooking class, to visiting schools and academies focused on providing education to children and women.
This trip is a real deep dive into the nuanced lives of Afghan women. The ones you don’t see in the media - but the ones who exist, nevertheless.
The ones that have voices that so far go unheard, the ones who laugh, smile, and dance.
Of course, everyone’s experience is unique, different. As travellers, we cannot pretend to understand the complex lives of Afghan women.
Or even begin to scratch the surface.
After all, by default, we are exposed only to the demographic that is not forced to stay behind closed doors.
We simply aim to give space and learn from those voices and faces beyond the headlines.
Those women who are not just surviving, but thriving.
Despite all the odds, going against the grain and working with what they have. Learning not just about their suffering but also highlighting their strength and resilience.
Only On Tour.
Some things really stuck with me long after the tour. Indeed, I don’t think some of these memories will ever leave me.
The main thing is the hospitality. Being invited to locals’ birthday parties, houses, tea and cake for Eid - even weddings.
The taste of literally the best dumplings I’ve ever had in… probably ever (and I’ve had a lot of dumplings). This was made all the better by the fact that it was home-cooked by our driver’s wife, and preceded by a cultural faux pas that turned into a running joke. Before we went inside, I had asked the name of his wife in front of the other men in the car. Even though they’re all distant relatives and close friends, it’s culturally seen as something of a ‘shame’ to announce your wife’s name. So, when he told me, all the guys around me found out for the first time too, and found it hilarious.
And our driver (who is much more than a driver - a fixer, organiser, joker, friend) taking over the cooking duties as we enjoyed melon by the river…
To then marvelling at him racing through the mountains of Bamiyan on a horse (and proceeding to try our own hand in enjoying riding through epic landscapes of Afghanistan), and unfortunately losing the drone footage thereof inside the Band-e-Amir lake.
Our day at the women’s centre in Bamiyan is incredibly special and always full of laughter. Especially when the ashak dumplings we were learning to make during the cooking class ended up taking us 3-4 hours, and the 9-month pregnant-about-to-burst manager had to help us take over rolling the dough.
We happened to be in the Kabul National Museum at the same time as an entire school’s school trip. This hindered our visit a little as we spent a lot of time chatting to them and taking photos, and spending 20 minutes saying goodbye, only to then see the same group take over the grounds of Babur Gardens just as we arrived.
Clearly, we were all on the same tourist path.
From being escorted happily by men with guns at a viewpoint to multiple run-ins we had with the ‘morality police’ - every trip to Afghanistan, every visit to each site, every person you meet - it's a different experience, no matter how many times I go back.
Why Women’s Tours to Afghanistan?
We all know how women in Afghanistan are presented in the media. Namely, unseen faces behind pieces of fabric.
This is the reality for some women in Afghanistan.
But it is one reality. And to reduce an entire population of Afghan women to just this would be both a shame and also a simplification.
Many women in Afghanistan walk around in colourful hijabs with faces uncovered, wearing stylish clothing.
Business owners. Teachers. Dentists.
Doing what they can with the (limited) resources given to them.
It is these women also that we aim to spotlight on our women’s trips to Afghanistan.
Women-Only Spaces
Women’s lives in Afghanistan come to light in women-only spaces.
So, we made the entire tour a women-only space.
Of course, we do have a women-focused tour that is a mixed group. This tour is also led by women and contains many of the same activities.
But it is the off-script where things really come to life.
The small additions to the itinerary that we could never anticipate, let alone write down for people to look forward to and expect.
Not your regular group tour.
Travel to Afghanistan on a group tour is not your regular group tour experience. Most hard-core travellers dislike travelling in group tours for the lack of authentic experience, for the inability to talk to locals, for not being able to go off-piste.
Well, we can reassure you...
A lot of travelling in Afghanistan IS about going off-piste.
All of the experiences you usually only get with solo travel, sometimes, are only possible in a group tour like this that’s focused on cultural exploration and people.
A lot of what we do on this tour is indeed only possible on this group tour.
The issue of women is still a highly sensitive one in Afghanistan, and a lot of the experiences have been curated after extensive research and building up a large amount of trust.
From having honey and tea in a nomad's tent in the mountains to enjoying roadside mulberries through the Hindu Kush… Enjoying a rendition of the local instrument in the antique shop, sharing melon with wild donkeys and the taliban, or finding one of the best sunset spots overlooking Kabul because you were denied entry into the local park you intended on visiting, or gatecrashing someone’s wedding.
Sometimes going off the itinerary is something we can’t help, even if we wanted to.
And, as a tour leader working there, it certainly teaches you a new level of patience..!
Don’t get me wrong - we usually get to see and do more than everything on the itinerary and don’t miss a thing. Things may not always go to plan.
BUT an important aspect of travel in Afghanistan is that they do always… go. In the end.
Things always work out, somehow.
Aside from things sometimes not always going to plan, it is the warmth and hospitality of the local Afghans that are somehow the most disruptive aspect. A pleasant disruption, of course!
Who are we to deny people tea with some guys outside the mosque or a chat with locals at a picnic watching the cricket?
Ethics of Travel to Afghanistan
Giving Back
There is an ethical question looming over travel to Afghanistan. Especially when you bring women into the picture.
Our women’s tours to Afghanistan actively work with and support local women, as well as multiple female-run initiatives.
We visit a textile factory, and learn about the owner’s struggle to set up her own - now incredibly successful international - company. An initiative against her husband’s wishes.
We visit a school run by volunteer teachers, helping to keep the children in the community educated.
In fact, we visit and actively support multiple schools that are currently suffering due to a lack of foreign funding in the current situation.
We visit these places not to be observers, but to try to create a positive impact wherever we can.
We hear the stories of those brave and fearless women and learn about the complex lives of women in Afghanistan, and at the same time, we learn about what we can do to help.
Instead of ‘leave nothing but footprints’, Koryo Tours actively aims to leave a positive impact behind. As well as donating a percentage of our tour profits to each of the organisations and schools we visit, we also provide support by raising awareness and holding collections for items they may need.
Is it Safe to Travel as a Woman?
The question on everyone’s minds. Is it safe to travel to Afghanistan?
Koryo Tours has been working in unusual destinations for over 30 years. But, fair enough, Afghanistan is one of our ‘more unusual’ destinations that we’ve run in our several decades of business.
Of course, travel to any country brings its risks - Afghanistan certainly no less than others.
However, we have been able to establish a strong network within the country so that we are confident in the safety aspect of our Afghanistan tours. After extensive research and experience leading trips in the country, we are confident in our mitigation measures to ensure safety.
We travel with a security team and extra safety vehicles, as well as having a strong safety protocol.
For safety reasons, we require the group to stay together at all times.
If you want to know more about our safety measures in Afghanistan, please get in touch!
What’s more, travelling as a group of all or predominantly women actually makes the tour safer. You are generally respected. And, it is unlikely you will be approached in the streets.
Dealing with the Taliban
This is too big a topic to tackle briefly here.
However, what we can say is that the Taliban as an institution are very pro-tourism.
Our female guides have their own privately owned business. However, they cooperate directly with the Taliban during our group tours when it is needed.
Why Join A Women’s Tour To Afghanistan?
One of my favourite things about the women’s tours to Afghanistan is that there are so many things you can experience BECAUSE you’re a woman. Not in spite of the fact.
Things that as a man would not be accessible.
In a world dominated by men, you’re invited into the loud and colourful world of women.
And the women’s-only spaces in Afghanistan are some of the loudest.
That world, although on the outside much quieter, softer, much more demure... has a whole lot inside waiting for you to experience. A world full of emotions: Laughter, joy, smiles, and pain.
A world much louder than the world of men could ever be.
Women just don’t need to shout about it, is all.
What goes on behind closed doors in the world of women in Afghanistan, I can’t go into too much detail.
There are men reading this, after all.
And as sacred spaces for women, I’ll keep it as that.
But one thing I can say is that women may be silenced, they may be oppressed, but they do not let themselves live in silence. They do not let themselves live only in oppression.
But men don’t need to know that.
In any situation, the strong hearts and minds of women will always prevail.
The women of Afghanistan inspired me, gave me strength, and made me feel proud to be a woman.
And I thank the women in Afghanistan who allowed me into their lives, into their worlds. If just for a brief amount of time, their warmth and welcoming hearts made me feel like family.
I think we can learn a lot from the women in Afghanistan.
Koryo Tours
Travel to Afghanistan
Share
