An Australian content creator has been forced to defend herself after receiving backlash online for documenting her recent trip to Afghanistan on TikTok.
Chloe Baradinsky, known as Chloe Barry Hang on her socials, shared an unfiltered review of her experiences in the Taliban-controlled country last month.
Hosts of the Big Small Talk and Just The Gist podcasts then accused Chloe, 30, of ‘promoting’ the war-torn country and speculated she was paid by the Taliban.
Chloe vehemently denied the claims, insisting she was not gifted the trip by the militant group which took control of the country in 2021.
‘Who the f*** started the rumour that my trip to Afghanistan was sponsored by the Taliban?’ she began in a TikTok video posted earlier this week.
‘It’s the most absurd thing in the entire world.’
Chloe Baradinsky has been forced to defend herself after receiving backlash online for documenting her recent trip to Afghanistan on TikTok
Chloe then referenced an episode of Big Small Talk, posted on August 26, which saw hosts Hannah Ferguson and Sarah-Jane Adams discuss her Afghanistan trip.
Hannah and Sarah-Jane debated the recent ‘tourist boom’ of influencers flocking to Afghanistan and promoting their positive experiences in the country.
They mentioned Chloe as an example and had a frank discussion about the difficulties women who live in Afghanistan face on a daily basis.
‘I think while these influencers are posting and roaming freely, that’s tough when the same privileges aren’t being granted to the women of that country,’ Sarah-Jane said.
The hosts went on to say positive tourism ‘indirectly legitimises’ and ‘sustains’ Taliban rule, and then they questioned the ethics of Chloe promoting travel in the country.
However, Chloe has since hit back at their comments and slammed the speculation they shared about whether the content creator was paid by the Taliban for her visit.
‘It would have taken all of about two seconds for them to email me or DM me, asking whether my trip to Afghanistan was sponsored or gifted,’ Chloe fumed in a video.
‘I would have said, “Are you out of your fucking mind? No,”‘ she said, adding she didn’t even believe the Taliban had enough money to fund influencer trips.
The Australian content creator, known as Chloe Barry Hang on her socials, shared an unfiltered review of her experiences in the Taliban-controlled country last month. Pictured: Taliban security personnel stand guard as an Afghan burqa-clad woman (R) walks along a street at a market in the Baharak district of Badakhshan province on February 26, 2024
Hannah and Sarah-Jane have since apologised for some of the comments they made, but doubled down on their original talk about the ethics of Chloe’s trip.
They also referenced comments recently made by Pashtana Durrani, an Afghan women’s rights activist from ABC Radio National, about influencer trips to the country.
‘Afghanistan is a beautiful country, and I wish the world could see it beforehand, and I wish all Afghans and exiles could go back home,’ she said.
‘But the one thing I feel like everybody should know and understand is that this is legitimate propaganda that is being funded by the Taliban to soften their image in the world and sort of show foreigners that the country is safe and much nicer and can host other foreigners.
‘At the same time, you need to call out the hypocrisy of all these people who pay taxes to fight against terrorism but are now going to Afghanistan and furthering the Taliban propaganda.’
Chloe was also slammed in an episode of Rosie Waterland’s podcast, Just The Gist, which has since been deleted.
While Rosie didn’t specifically name Chloe, she quoted from the content creator’s videos and made some heated comments about her travels in Afghanistan.
‘I wouldn’t even call her an influencer, I mean, maybe, I guess. She’s been trying desperately to be an influencer for more than a decade,’ Rosie said.
Hosts of the Big Small Talk and Just The Gist podcasts then accused Chloe, 30, of ‘promoting’ the war-torn country and speculated she was paid by the Taliban—which Chloe has denied
She went on to claim: ‘This girl, she knows this country is bad. I think she also wanted a free trip and attention.
Chloe also made a public statement against Rosie on her TikTok, accusing the podcaster of bullying.
‘It is a very malicious podcast and a very hard listen. I wouldn’t let anyone speak like that in a private setting, let alone a public setting,’ Chloe said.
Chloe once again denied claims she was paid by the Taliban, and also denied being an influencer, before slamming the implication she was glamorising Afghanistan.
‘I made it clear, it’s a pretty f***ed situation. I also spoke about the nuances and that not everything was how we were portraying it in the media,’ she said.
‘I was just sharing what I saw and how people spoke to me verbatim.’
Rosie has since deleted the podcast episode and a post she later made doubling down on her comments about Chloe.
‘I can’t believe I’m commenting on this but what was initially just bizarre to me has now become something else entirely,’ Rosie said in the now-deleted post.
Chloe was also slammed in a vicious episode posted, and now deleted, by Rosie Waterland’s podcast, Just The Gist
‘I read a news story online about female travel influencers doing fancy travel content from Afghanistan.
‘I found it appalling, and brought it up on my podcast two weeks ago.
‘Yesterday, an influencer made a video and she directed her followers to come after me for publicly bullying her.
‘In the hours since, I’ve been on the receiving end of some of the worst online abuse I’ve ever experienced.’
It wasn’t the first time Chloe had received backlash for documenting her travels in the country, as her posts last month were often inundated with concerned messages.
‘I knew by choosing this location, I would get a lot of hate on it,’ she responded last month in one of the first moves of this sociopolitical discourse.
‘I still chose to share it because if it encourages just one person to view the country differently or to visit, I don’t care about the hate.
‘I’m curious. I want to learn about people, and I have left the country feeling like I have a new perspective on the people. The people are not their government.
‘The people didn’t vote for this. They didn’t choose it. They’re struggling. Why punish them because of their f***ing government?’
Afghanistan has seen a recent travel boost, four years after Taliban forces captured the capital city of Kabul on August 15, 2021, following the withdrawal of American troops under the Biden administration.
Internationally renowned Afghan activist and scholar Orzala Nemat recently said the surge of foreign influencers in Afghanistan was deeply concerning.
‘What we’re seeing instead is a curated, sanitised version of the country that conveniently erases the brutal realities faced by Afghan women under Taliban rule,’ Orzala told NBC News.
Deputy Minister of Tourism Qudratullah Jamal told The Associated Press (AP) that Afghanistan had nearly 9,000 foreign visitors last year—with 3,000 tourists in the first three months of this year.
‘Tourism brings many benefits to a country,’ he said. ‘We have considered those benefits and aim for our nation to take full advantage of them.’
United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organization director-general Audrey Azoulay told Fox News Digital in a statement that the Taliban has wiped out any gains for Afghan women.
‘This exclusion of women from public life in Afghanistan has disastrous consequences for the country’s long-term development,’ she said.
