Afghanistan Solo Female Travel Safety Tips and Advice

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Welcome to the Solo Female Travel Safety Tips and Advice page for Afghanistan!

This page is brought to you by Solo Female Travelers Tours, our curated small group trips for women, by women.

On this page you will find first-hand, unbiased, and real safety tips, advice and reviews from women traveling solo, submitted directly from their personal experiences in the country.

Their opinions are unfiltered and submitted independently as part of the Solo Female Travel Safety Index, a ranking of 210 countries and regions based on how safe they are for women traveling solo.

The safety scores range from 1 to 4 with 1 being the safest and 4 being the most dangerous for solo female travelers.

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Afghanistan Country data

We have compiled a few data points below that can help you better understand Afghanistan and have more context when thinking about travel safety.

Official country name: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Etymology: The name "Afghan" originally referred to the Pashtun people (today it is understood to include all the country's ethnic groups), while the suffix "-stan" means "place of" or "country"; so Afghanistan literally means the "Land of the Afghans".

Country map

Locator map

Flag

Capital: Kabul.

Independence / foundation: Ahmad Shah Durrani unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian Empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919.

Population: 39 million.

Currency: Afghan Afghani (AFN)
1 USD = 71 - 73 AFN
1 EUR = 77 - 80 AFN

Time zone: UTC+4.5

Languages spoken: Afghan Persian or Dari (official, lingua franca) 77%, Pashto (official) 48%, Uzbeki 11%, English 6%, Turkmani 3%, Urdu 3%, Pachaie 1%, Nuristani 1%, Arabic 1%, Balochi 1%, other <1%.

Religions: Muslim 99%, other 1%.

Climate: Arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers.

Real GDP (ppp – purchasing power parity): $61 billion.

Real GDP per capita (ppp): $1,500.

Main airports: Kabul International Airport, Kandahar International Airport, Herat International Airport, and Maulana Jalaluddin Balkhi International Airport.

World heritage sites in Afghanistan

Buddhas of Bamyan.
Minaret of Jam – David adamec, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Minaret of Jam – David adamec, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

There are over 1,100 world heritage sites spread across more than 165 countries. New ones are added every year, and some may be removed from the list for various reasons.

Number of UNESCO listed sites: 2.

Top world heritage sites:

- Minaret of Jam.
- Cultural Landscape & Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley.

Interesting facts about Afghanistan

- Afghanistan's national game, known as Buzkashi or goat-grabbing, is the wildest game in the world. The country would like its national game to be an Olympic sport.

- Poetry is an important part of Afghan culture and has been used to tell the country's story in verse for more than 1,000 years.

- The first oil paintings were drawn around 650 B.C. in the UNESCO-listed caves of Bamiyan, in the central highlands of Afghanistan.

- The US Department of State believes there are 2,000-3,000 Christians in Afghanistan, although the country doesn't recognize any of its inhabitants as non-Muslims. There are no Christian public churches in Afghanistan and Christians practice either alone or in small congregations, meeting in private homes.

- As stated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium in the world.

Further reading: N/A.


Afghanistan Travel tips

Socket type: C / F. Guide to socket types.

Weekend days: Friday and Saturday.

Driving: Cars drive on the Right.

Local taxi apps: Kaweyan Cabs, Hannk.

Travel Guides: Lonely Planet, Bradt Guide.

Languages spoken: Afghan Persian or Dari (official, lingua franca) 77%, Pashto (official) 48%, Uzbeki 11%, English 6%, Turkmani 3%, Urdu 3%, Pachaie 1%, Nuristani 1%, Arabic 1%, Balochi 1%, other <1%.

Basic words and phrases in Persian:
Hello: Salam or Salam alaikum
Please: Lutfan
Thank you: Tashakur
Help: Kumak


Learn more Persian with our favorite learning app Mondly.

Find a hotel in Afghanistan

Booking.com

Book tours and activities:

Not available.

More about Afghanistan on Solo Female Travelers

Coming soon.

Did you spot any errors? We do our best to keep this information updated and accurate, but things change. If you saw anything that is not right, let us know so we can fix it: [email protected].


About the Solo Female Travel Safety Index

Safety matters to solo female travelers, you told us so in our annual Solo Female Travel Survey, where year after year, women prove that this is their most important concern when traveling solo.

We wanted to do something about it, so we built these country-specific pages where you can find reviews and scores for 7 key variables affecting the safety of women traveling solo.

Variables

  • Risk of scam
  • Risk of theft
  • Risk of harassment
  • Attitudes towards women
  • UK Travel Advisory
  • US Travel advisory
  • Global Peace Index (GPI)

Informing OSAC

The Solo Female Travel Safety Score is used by the Overseas Security Advisory Council for including safety concerns for women travelers in their country security reports; OSAC is a partnership between the U.S. Department of State and private-sector security community.

How to use the Safety Index

On this page, you will find the country score and the personal opinions on safety of other women traveling solo.

You can sort the comments by:

  • The level of experience traveling solo of the reviewer (beginner = <5 trips solo, Intermediate = 5 to 10 trips solo, Experienced = >10 trips solo).
  • The age of the traveler.
  • Whether they are a visitor or local.
  • The date they were posted.

The safety scores range from 1 to 4 with 1 being the safest and 4 being the most dangerous for solo female travelers. 

Thus, the lower the score, the safer the country.


Looking for more safety resources?

This entire website is devoted to helping women travel solo. Check out the links below to learn more:

Solo Female Travel Stats: Results from the the largest, most comprehensive and only global research study on solo female travel trends, preferences and behaviors published.

Thanks to Jacobo Vilella for creating the Solo Female Travelers Safety Index ❤️