Among the Talibros | The New Yorker
Three hostages Kneeling in front of the cameraTheir hands are tied behind their backs and their heads are covered with black plastic bags that obscure their faces. Looming behind them is a group of fluorescent bearded gunmen, wearing jackets and turbans, some carrying assault rifles.
“We have one message for America,” says the man standing in the middle, placing one hand on the shoulder of the person kneeling in front of him, while the other hand moves the air to emphasize his speech. For people of a certain age, this scene is instantly recognizable. The intense stares, the argumentative text, the stillness of kneeling bodies – all are eerily reminiscent of the videos of the beheadings of Daniel Pearl and James Foley by Islamic figures.
Fortunately, this video took a different turn. The speaker removes the bag from the face of the man kneeling in front of him, who then proceeds to flash a Hollywood smile and give an emphatic thumbs up. “Welcome to Afghanistan!” he says directly to the camera, and then a montage of Westerners taking pictures in mountain valleys and doing pull-ups on the muzzles of tank guns begins.
Yousef Ariobi is an Afghan American in his late twenties video As an advertisement for his travel agency Reza Afghanistan, which organizes tourist tours in the country. Areobi, who divides his time between Afghanistan and California, plays the would-be guardian, while Jake Youngblood Dobbs, an American travel influencer who was on tour with Raza at the time, is the artificial victim that Areobi exposes. The video is simultaneously a provocative advertisement for Ariyobi, as well as an encouragement for tourists to visit Afghanistan. Pro-Taliban social media account @afghanarabc He shared the post, giving at least a bit of official rebuttal to Areobi’s stunt. (The account also shared other videos in English, including one section From Tucker Carlson’s presentation, which favorably compares punitive drug treatment programs in Afghanistan to those in America).
I hate to admit it, but when I first saw this video a few months ago, it made me laugh. The tonal punch gave it a dark, nonsensical irony, like something a particularly cynical Tim Robinson would create. Youngblood and others have an affectionate nickname for their hosts: Talibros. The men’s rock montage that followed the execution sketch had some really funny bits. Some men are fiddling with an assault rifle with the words “US Government Property” engraved on the side. “It’s an American souvenir,” someone jokes. “Oh, it’s not safe yet,” said the white tourist with the gun before the whole group burst into the familiar laughter of a group of men doing something stupid and dangerous, and therefore funny.
However, the opening scene stuck with me, and in the weeks that followed, I began to interpret it as something less funny and more sinister. The graphic beheadings were indelible images from the wars of my childhood and adolescence in the two thousand pictorial pieces of contraband we scoured on illicit websites. I feel sick thinking about those videos, and it was the obvious response that I think was the goal of this group of young influencers. Areobi’s irreverent references to years of violence in Afghanistan are part of a growing library of satire-filled travel content that simultaneously asks viewers to stop believing everything the mainstream media tells them about the country while also instructing them not to take what influencers say too seriously. We call it Frommers for Edge Masters. Many other creators have spent time traveling across Afghanistan, sharing glowing stories about how men can remain men, with the Taliban maintaining traditional values. Some mock Western assumptions about how women are treated in the country. Famous American YouTuber Addison Pierre Maalouf – better known as Arab to nearly two million subscribers — toured Afghanistan last winter. In one of the videos, he and his companions Visit the women’s market.