The Taliban have released a foreign woman who was traveling alone from custody

"Taliban" releases foreign woman traveling alone from custody

An Indian content creator, who was arrested in Afghanistan for traveling alone as a woman, has been released from "Taliban" custody.

This refers to Arunima IP, who has more than 1.2 million followers on Instagram and over 733,000 on YouTube. She was detained by the "Taliban" on September 14 for traveling alone. The Indian citizen had traveled to Afghanistan for tourism purposes about two weeks prior.

In her SOS message on September 14, she wrote, "Please help me contact the Indian Embassy." About 24 hours later, she posted a message on Instagram saying, "I am safe now." Arunima had been posting daily videos on YouTube about her travels to markets and remote villages in Afghanistan.

"In Afghanistan, women are only allowed to show their eyes. I can show my face because I am a woman from another country, otherwise I would have to cover my face too," she wrote in one of her Instagram posts.

A video posted by Arunima last week showed her being stopped by armed men identified as the "Taliban".

"In Afghanistan, we are questioned like this at every checkpoint," she said.

The men carrying rifles asked Arunima for her documents, and she handed them her Indian passport. She said that the individuals who stopped her on September 14 could not read her travel documents. They advised Arunima not to travel alone and to obtain a special permit to move across different provinces of the country.

"For several hours, I was so nervous that I thought I might even die. I was very scared. In the evening, I got into a truck and reached Bamiyan. As soon as I got out of the vehicle, people started coming towards me, because in Afghanistan, a woman usually does not walk alone at night," she said.

Arunima traveled to remote provinces of the country, such as Jalalabad, and filmed Afghan women whose faces and bodies were completely covered. The content creator did not understand why the "Taliban" issued her a visa knowing she was traveling alone, and then arrested her.

"According to their law, I violated the rules. They said they would arrest me. Here, every member of the 'Taliban' is like a police officer. They can do whatever they want. I asked them to deport me. What was my crime? That I traveled alone as a woman in a country where women are forbidden to travel alone," she said in her video.

Later, the Indian Embassy called her and arranged for Arunima to be safely transported to Kabul. As a result, she left for India with the support of the embassy. Most countries advise their citizens not to travel to Afghanistan, as the situation in the country is not safe for travel. Nevertheless, many content creators ignore these warnings to cover their travels to one of the regions with the strictest restrictions in the world.