"Taliban": The Buddha Statues as Symbols of Afghanistan

The Washington Post published a photo report about tickets sold by the "Taliban" movement to promote tourism and visits to the Buddha statues that they had previously destroyed years ago. The report states that the stone hill, which stands 125 feet tall, is now empty, where it once stood. The Washington Post adds that Atiqullah Azizi, the current Deputy Minister of Information and Culture for the Taliban, says that the Buddha statues hold special significance for their government, and more than 1,000 individuals have been assigned to protect this site. Local media and culture president for the Taliban, Saif Rahman Mohammadi, told the newspaper that last year, 200,000 tourists, mostly Afghans, visited Bamiyan province, with each spending an average of 57 US dollars. According to Mohammadi, tourism could be an important source of income for the Taliban government. According to one of the Taliban guards, “These statues were symbols of Afghanistan; they should not have been destroyed, but rather this place should be rebuilt.”