Dark tourism has become an ever-rising trend, but what exactly is dark tourism? Dark tourism involves traveling to places of historical tragedy and death, macabre scenes from history like crime scenes, execution sites, disaster zones, prisons and battlefields. While many believe it’s okay to visit such sites, these sites present many ethical problems of showing respect for these places that tourists fail to heed. Some go farther than just visiting a historical site.
Recent pictures of Chinese women posing with the Taliban circulate online, all of them with the same theme. The women are smiling and, in some cases, even holding the soldiers AK-47s.
Mixed feelings abound about the pictures with some media users saying that the Taliban have made Afghanistan very tourist friendly, while others are upset about the justification of their rule over the Afghan people, more specifically their women.
While some people have tried to classify this as dark tourism, it is more than just that. These pictures were taken in an active situation, not a historical site, nor are they taken in a respectable light. Posing with AK-47s? The same AK that has likely killed innocent women.
I find this completely unethical and dismissing of the serious situation at hand. One X user commented, “These women are contributing to the subjugation of other women. Disgusting.” another reposted the pictures stating, “Chinese female tourists taking pictures with Taliban in Afghanistan were definitely not on my bingo card for 2024.”
This act of “tourism” is hurtful and unfair, highlighting foreign privilege by flaunting freedom and the ability of the Afghanis to even own or hold a firearm and taking photos with locals who do not have the right.
The Taliban stripped the Afghani women of their human rights and the right to go to school while these people come into their country happily taking pictures with their oppressors.. This is not dark tourism, but a form of graft that brings terrorist leaders more money.
