At first glance, you think it’s a joke. After all, who can mock a beheading? But in this absurd world, a video promoting tourism in Afghanistan is a bomb (pun intended!).
The video, which was posted by various Afghan social media handles, surfaced last week.
The 50-second clip seeks to change war-ravaged Afghanistan’s dreaded reputation. Starting with the ominous tag “Message for America,” the video shows a couple of men kneeling down with their heads covered, in a dark throwback to Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl’s beheading video.
But as soon as the head cover is taken off, the ‘hostage’ smiles at the camera and says “Welcome to Afghanistan” with a beaming smile and a joyous thumbs-up.
At one point, a gunman places a flower in the barrel of his AK-47, blending menace with mockery. People can be seen smiling and laughing to the tune of upbeat music. The video, which pokes fun at how the world sees the war-ravaged country, has been panned by many users.
🔥🚨BREAKING: The Taliban uploaded this strange video inciting American tourist to come visit Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/6vTIhcGhTy— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) July 9, 2025
Social media users described the clip as “disturbing,” “creepy,” and “darkly ironic.” One person wrote, “How can they promote tourism with images that look like war crimes?” while someone else slammed it saying, “This isn’t a travel ad—it’s a warning.”
Afghanistan has ranked at the bottom of several development indexes with gender disparity being the worse. The United Nations in one of the reports said that “since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, UN Women has witnessed a deliberate and unprecedented assault on the rights, freedoms, and dignity of Afghan women and girls. UN Women’s 2024 Afghanistan Gender Index is the most comprehensive assessment of women’s empowerment and gender parity in the country since that turning point.”
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