Being Detained By The Taliban Sucks, I Know From Experience

Yesterday, over 200 people sent me the story about 24 year old Miles Routledge, youtube “danger vlogger”, who is being held captive by the Taliban.

I sincerely hope he's okay. I know how scary being held by the Taliban can be, since it happened to me a couple months ago. Fortunately, I was released after only a few hours. You can listen to the whole story here.

I also make videos in dangerous places, with the goal being to show the softer side. As for Miles, he seems to be a bit more adventurous than I am. He has visited Afghanistan many times, and was actually airlifted out during the fall of Kabul. On his most recent trip he was detained, and has been held captive since the beginning of the year.

An important detail in my opinion, is that when the Taliban picked him up, he supposedly had a gun. He also had a permit for the gun. But this to me is one of the reasons Afghanistan can be so stressful…permit or not, it can all depend on which Talib you run into that day. Even if someone arrests you, and they’re wrong for doing so, it can take many hours or even days for their “supervisor” to arrive and tell them that it’s all good.

In this case, it appears that Routledge is being held as a foreign spy, until further review. The other two current detainees are employees of the NGO “The Presidium Network”.  They were recently permitted to have video calls with their family, where they shared that they were being treated fairly.  Unfortunately, Routledge did not participate in these calls and we’re not quite sure where he is.

It doesn’t surprise me that the other two reported being treated fairly. The Taliban, while we don’t agree with most of their policies or actions, are actually quite hospitable to foreigners. Afghanistan is known for being a hospitable place in general, I was invited over for dinner 4-5 times a day, every day, by Taliban and civilians alike. 

While I was detained by the Taliban, at a local compound, they treated us like guests. To the point where I was surprised when they searched all my stuff. We were technically “arrested” but it felt more like a dinner party. They are principled, even though those principles are usually sideways and unreasonable by modern standards. This could explain why in the past, many detainees have been freed simply by giving a sincere apology as opposed to paying some sort of ransom or bribe(I ended up paying a small bribe, and people told me that I probably didn’t even have to).

But don't get it twisted, I tried to avoid run ins with the Taliban at all costs. It’s not that difficult to do in theory. As long as you’re wearing the local clothing, it’s very difficult to notice a foreigner, given how surprisingly diverse Afghanistan is. But since there are so, so many Taliban everywhere throughout the country, you inevitably end up talking to them a couple times a day.

9 out of 10 times when you bump into them, you’re fine. The most stressful part of it is the beginning. They're always on high alert and suspicious of any foreigner initially. They are trying to stomp out ISIS decisively but suicide attacks continue regularly, and they are soldiers by training and behave like it. Once they determine you're a tourist and not a spy or a journalist, the encounter turns warm very quickly, but you never quite know when you might bump into the wrong Talib on the wrong day and what might happen. Additionally, you wonder what might cause them to be convinced you're a spy.  A gun might do the trick(in the case of Miles), but maybe it's something more trivial. Most of these guys are young, uneducated and naive; you simply can't assume they'll have the ability to use common sense like a typical government official. I wonder if that’s what happened to our friend Miles, or if perhaps, the gun and other things made it a more likely scenario.

But in my experience, most of the time they were thrilled to meet me, a foreign tourist. They'd usually ask to take a picture with me, which they wouldn't share - "come on bro airdrop it to me" (literally said that once). Not only are they welcoming, they kind of force you to meet and hang out with their Taliban buddies. They literally hold your hand as they proudly parade you down the street, showing you off like it’s show and tell day at Taliban HQ. Before they let you go, they offer to convert you to Islam, and when you politely decline, they assure they will be in this spot tomorrow if you’d like to hang out.

As for Miles, I hope he’s healthy and safe. Seeing all the scorn in the comments about how “he deserved it” make me feel bad for his family. But when you play this dangerous game, you can’t help but worry about the worst case scenario. Hopefully that won’t be the case this time.

- I'll be releasing a feature length piece about my travels and the two schools that I started while I was over there.