The authorities in Belarus appear to be suppressing images that emerged from a Taliban delegation's visit that included a tour of a cheese-making plant.
The visit by Taliban officials to the Slutz Cheese-Making Plant in central Belarus was reported on by a local news outlet on August 21, but then deleted from its website and social media channels.
Another post about the Taliban delegation’s visit appears to have been removed from a website linked to Belarus’ National Academy of Sciences.
Several photos from the news report by local outlet Slutzky Krai were shared widely online before being deleted, and were picked up by opposition media.
Commentators pointed out the striking optics of officials from a regime notorious for gender-based repression listening to Belarusian women showcasing food and baby formula.
Women in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are required to be fully covered, and dress codes for women have been violently enforced by the Islamist regime in recent months.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya told RFE/RL the photos also revealed the "hypocrisy" of the authorities in her own country.
“On the one hand, the regime declares Belarusian journalists, activists, and civil society groups ‘extremists’ and ‘terrorists.’ On the other, it quietly welcomes representatives of the Taliban and discusses business with them,” she said.
Tsikhanouskaya said part of the controversy over the images stems from a broader frustration over diplomatic ties being formed by Minsk.
“Belarusians see who Lukashenka is choosing as Belarus’s friends. They did not choose isolation. They did not choose partnership with the Taliban, North Korea, or other dictatorships,” she said.
In contrast to near silence from Minsk, the Taliban’s agriculture ministry has posted multiple times about the delegation's visit to Belarus and several Afghan news websites have also reported on the trip.
The visit was described by the Ariana news website as a “high-level Afghan delegation” of 13 men who spent five days in Belarus in order to “explore modern production technologies,” and the possibility of establishing similar ventures in Afghanistan.
Afghan news reports used images showing only males in the frame.
Some Belarusians have referenced the similarity in appearance of the Taliban delegation to the mujahedin who fought the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of Belarusians fought in the Soviet-Afghan war and more than 700 were killed.
“I think the Soviet soldiers who fought in Afghanistan are a little in shock,” one commenter said. Another asked rhetorically, “will they be taken to the monument to fallen internationalist soldiers?”
The controversy over the most recent Taliban visit to Belarus comes on the heels of a political storm in Moldova caused by the visit of Taliban representatives to that country in early August.
Authorities in Kabul claimed the visit by members of the Taliban's agriculture ministry was made at the invitation of Chisinau, “to discuss expanding practical and technical cooperation between the two countries."
Soon afterwards, Moldova's Foreign Ministry released a statement stressing “there will be no bilateral meetings or official contacts with the delegation's representatives.” An investigation has been launched into how the three Afghan men received visas to enter the eastern European country.
Russia is the only country to have formally recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government following the withdrawal of US-led international forces from Afghanistan in 2021.
Several countries -- including China, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan -- maintain ties with the Taliban without officially recognizing its government.
