A US porn actor has traveled to Afghanistan in a trip unacknowledged by the Taliban, who have restricted the rights of women and girls and imposed strict morality laws since seizing power in 2021.
Whitney Wright, who caused uproar with a visit to Iran last year as authorities there cracked down on women, posted images of her trip to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan on her Instagram account.
They show a plane from national carrier Ariana on a runway, a tiled ceiling from the Western city of Herat, supermarket items and vehicles. Wright does not appear in the images.
She did not respond to messages from The Associated Press on Friday. Nobody from the Taliban was immediately available for comment.
The Taliban are keen to attract tourists and promote a different side of the country. Foreigners are visiting, encouraged by the drop in violence.
Earlier this month The Taliban took over the operations of Afghanistan’s only luxury hotel in Kabul, more than a decade after they launched a deadly attack there that killed nine people.
The Serena Hotel said it was closing its operations in the Afghan capital on Febuary 1, with the Hotel State Owned Corporation taking over. The corporation is overseen by the finance ministry.
The Taliban first targeted the Serena in 2008 and again in 2014. Acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani acknowledged planning the 2008 attack, which killed eight, including U.S. citizen Thor David Hesla.
As a U.S. citizen born in Oklahoma City, Wright would need a visa to enter Afghanistan but there are no operational Afghan embassies or consulates in the U.S.
Whitney Wright in Iraq:
The Taliban have control of some 40 diplomatic missions around the world.
The State Department says U.S. citizens should not travel to Afghanistan for any reason due to civil unrest, crime, terrorism, kidnapping and limited health facilities. It also says there is a risk of wrongful detention of U.S. nationals.
Wright has traveled to Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon in recent years.
