At 24, Fatima Haidari made headlines in 2020 by becoming the first woman to serve as a guide in Afghanistan. And if we talk about her again today, it’s because a year and a half after the Taliban took power, she continues to introduce tourists to the remarkable Afghan sites, except that she does so at distance, 5,600 kilometers further, in Milan in Italy. “In lifeshe wrote on Instagram, no one will come to do things for you, you have to be your own hero.“
She was convinced of this in the summer of 2021, when the Taliban began their advance towards Kabul. She was a tourist guide in the city of Herat, an ancient city rich in an immense archaeological heritage, and her employer made her understand that she was in danger, that with the arrival of the Taliban, he could no longer protect her. . So she left. Direction Kabul airport, like thousands of Afghans, where she manages to get on a plane. At the end of her journey, she found asylum in Italy, in Milan, enrolled at Bocconi University to follow a course in political science, made friends, and gradually regained her breath without forgetting Afghanistan. , quite the contrary.
“Showing the beauties of this country, its culture, its history”
Unable to return to Herat, Fatima Haidari therefore decided to offer virtual tours of her city, in other words to continue to do her job as a tourist guide, but remotely, via the Zoom videoconference platform, using her stock of videos. and photos taken there. It is the British tour operator Untamed Borders which offers these monthly virtual tours, walks where Fatima Haidari takes Internet users to discover, for example, the archaeological site of Bamiyan, admire the Buddhist sanctuaries where huge statues of Buddha were located. before their destruction in 2001. Also visit the Minaret of Jam, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, or even the Herat market, the souk, the lively streets, mosques, squares.
“When we hear about Afghanistanshe told AFP, we think of war, terror, bombs. Me, I want to show the beauties of this country, its culture, its history.” Last detail: the money raised is used to pay for English lessons for Afghan women banned from university by the Taliban since December 2022. Fatima Haidari does not use the word “feminist” but she campaigns for equal rights and embodies everything that fundamentalists hate: an educated woman, who speaks, who acts, who also dreams of returning to Herat to one day found her own travel agency.