Taliban detain Kerala solo traveller in Afghanistan, woman recounts fear

Indian solo traveller Arunima I P, popularly known as Backpacker Arunima, has described hours of fear after she was stopped by Taliban men while travelling alone in Afghanistan and told that women were not permitted to travel without a male companion or guide.

Arunima, a native of Ottapalam in Kerala’s Palakkad district, had sparked concern on Monday after posting a distress message on social media seeking help in contacting the Indian Embassy. A day later, she said she was safe and narrated the ordeal in a video posted on her YouTube channel.

Arunima reached Afghanistan last month and has been travelling across the country alone since August 27. She said her presence often drew crowds because women were rarely seen alone in public spaces.

In her video, Arunima said she was waylaid in Bamyan after hitchhiking on a truck. The men who stopped her asked to see her travel documents and questioned why she was travelling alone.

She said they were unable to read her documents properly and insisted that she needed a special permit to cross provinces.

‘I was completely terrified’

“I spent several hours in tension that I felt I could have died. I was completely terrified,” Arunima said in the video.

She recalled reaching Bamyan in the evening after travelling on a truck.

“The very moment I got down from the vehicle, people started coming towards me because a woman would not normally be alone in Afghanistan at night,” she said.

According to Arunima, the men asked her to show her passport and visa and told her that women could not travel alone under the country’s rules.

“I showed them my passport and visa. According to the law of this country, a woman cannot travel alone,” she said.

Arunima said she tried to explain that she had already been travelling alone since entering Afghanistan. However, she claimed the authorities told her she had violated the rules and threatened to arrest her.

“According to their law, I had violated the rules. They told me that they were going to arrest me,” she said.

She added that she asked to be deported instead.

“What was my crime? I had travelled alone as a woman in a country where women are not allowed to travel alone,” she said.

Permit denied in Jalalabad

Arunima also said she had earlier sought permission to continue travelling alone from authorities in Jalalabad but was unable to obtain the required permit.

“I repeatedly asked them to give me the permit, but they said they could not issue one without a man accompanying me, or I would have to travel with a guide,” she said.

She said the restrictions left her worried about how she would move between provinces and navigate checkpoints during her journey.

Her account came a day after she posted a message seeking assistance from the Indian Embassy, triggering concern among her followers. On Tuesday morning, she reassured them with a brief message: “I am safe.”

Leaving Afghanistan for Uzbekistan

Arunima said she now plans to leave Afghanistan and travel to Uzbekistan, which she described as being around 500 km away. She also expressed concern about crossing checkpoints on the way.

The Kerala traveller has spent the past six years exploring different parts of the world. Before beginning her international journeys, she said she had travelled extensively across India for about one-and-a-half years.

She describes herself on social media as a solo traveller who hitchhikes through remote and difficult routes, documenting places that are less explored by tourists.

Arunima has said in earlier media interviews that she chose a different path after completing Class 12. Having loved travelling since childhood, she took up various jobs before becoming a full-time solo traveller in 2020.

She now has around 1.2 million followers on Instagram and about 731,000 subscribers on YouTube.