“THE WOMEN WERE VERY… HAPPY”. The Taliban propaganda machine pushed by ‘content creators’.

Recently, Piers Morgan conducted an interview with three YouTube “content creators” who have been accused of promoting Taliban propaganda through their well-followed channels.

YouTuber ‘Arab’ birth name Addison Pierre Maalouf, Harry Jaggard, and Nolan Saumure have all traveled to Afghanistan to “document” their findings. All have come away declaring that Afghanistan is a safe and well-maintained society that promotes the rights of women and minorities.

Of course, like clockwork, Addison explains how Western media is fake, that it drives fear into everyone, and promotes a false view of the world. Typical “tin foil hat” rhetoric, claiming that the media is controlled by this person or that.

“This whole news narrative that we have been pushed our entire lives is false.” – Addison Maalouf

It should also be noted that the vast majority of people traveling to Afghanistan to document the Taliban are young men.

The amount of evidence that counters their testimonies is undeniable.

Addison started his statement saying that “women were very happy” in Afghanistan, and that they have “more rights than men.”

This is a shocking statement to make, considering the Taliban have recently made it illegal for women to speak in public, travel without a male relative, go to school or university, have a say in who they can and cannot marry, vote, work, sing, or even show skin.

Here at Uncharted Thoughts, we have conducted interviews with women from Afghanistan who have fled to nearby countries as refugees. We have made a grand total of £0 from outside sources and, therefore, can tell you with certainty and without influence that women are oppressed, raped, assaulted, tortured, and persecuted for their gender on an industrial scale.

Many of the women I have interviewed have been tortured by the Taliban for protesting for women’s education. Many have been threatened with violence or death if they do not concede to the Taliban’s barbaric way of living. Others have been threatened with forced marriage to a Taliban soldier or officer if they do not remain silent on the matters of Taliban control.

The Taliban PR model seems to be simple and effective. Find a YouTuber who is willing to corrupt their morals for financial gain, send him across Afghanistan with an entourage of security and guides so that they (he) will not step off the beaten path. Publish the video with great edits, cinematography, and sound, then watch naïve Westerners who are hooked on finding any evidence to suggest the world is rigged by the ‘Jews’ or the ‘Illuminati’. Get them hooked on a lie in hopes they will book flights to Afghanistan, helping to increase funding to the Taliban and its oppressive regime.

The content creators fumbled the debate, often laughing at Piers and suggesting that it was a joke, or that they are journalists gathering information for the world to see without the confines of media payment barriers.

Of course, I believe that journalists should be able to report across the globe freely. However, there is a reason why there is a blackout in journalism across Afghanistan. It is a deadly, often one-way trip that can end in execution or imprisonment.

These are not journalists, they are YouTubers—unskilled and underdeveloped in international affairs, history, and politics. Their perception of Afghanistan is through the lens of what is directly in front of them, and their line of questioning is timid at best.

Their lack of moral regard for the people around them, for the damage they are doing to women, children, and the Afghan community, cannot be overstated.

During the interview, Harry liked to brag about his trip to North Korea. His posh voice stating, “I do not agree with the politics of North Korea, but…” as hundreds of thousands of people starve to death on a yearly basis. Where those arrested by Kim Jong Un’s thought police are dragged into work camps, with their families, because being a traitor is a genetic disease that will flow through three generations. Where dogs and rats are a common source of food for the poor, and education is non-existent.

I understand the draw towards adventure, towards danger; it’s thrilling and at times rewarding. You want to get to the end of your life feeling accomplished and with a story to tell while lying on your deathbed.

But there are limits.

I have been through the Amazon rainforest, climbed mountains from Nepal to Peru, scaled glaciers, and ridden motorbikes in far-off lands. I understand why there is a pull to these dangerous places.

It’s awkward to watch—almost embarrassing—when these YouTubers push through crowds of people as though they are at some human zoo. Starved kids on the side of the road beg with no limbs; women cry as they hold dead or drugged babies. Men, thin to the bone, ask for a dollar to help feed their families.

It’s the modern “freak show,” and it is done for entertainment.

Let’s take one of these videos: Harry Jaggard’s “7 Days in the Most Dangerous Country in the World.”

This arrogant, middle-class posh boy got 4.5 million views. He earned anywhere between $7k–$15k for that one video. The annual salary for an Afghan is roughly $370 (2022).

Piers was joined on stage by Yalda Hakim, an Afghan woman whose family emigrated to Australia. She bombarded the three YouTubers with facts and moral lessons whenever Piers gave her the chance to speak, of course.

One video by Addison Pierre Maalouf showed a group of young boys dressed as Taliban fighters, performing military drills with fake weapons. Addison laughed, showing just how much remorse he has for the video and promoting the sad reality of boys in Afghanistan—brainwashed before they can tie their own laces.

This new YouTube fascination with traveling to terrible and dangerous places is revolting. Journalism isn’t about this. Journalism is about telling the stories of the downtrodden and the voiceless, not concentrated shock value, clicks, and likes for payment.