One of the Met Gala 2021 outfits that drew maximum comments, mostly jokes and memes, was Kim Kardashian’s all-black ensemble that covered her entire face. It didn’t take long for those memes to pit the 40-year-old reality TV star’s attire against burqa. That hit home in Afghanistan, where the back-in-power Taliban want Afghan women to dress exactly like that.
But Afghan women are using their online presence all over the world to stage a different kind of protest this time, and their traditional clothes are at the centre of it. The message to the Taliban is clear: #DoNotTouchMyClothes.
The protest movement started on 12 September when historian Dr Bahar Jalali posted the first picture with the hashtag, in response to hundreds of women attending the Kabul University in a fully veiled attire at the behest of the Taliban. Soon, journalists, human rights activists, overseas students and members of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) – both in Pakistan and Afghanistan – began sharing photographs of themselves in colourful clothes.
With much of the debate and concern over the Taliban’s return being centered on the fate of women and whether they would be allowed to work or have freedom beyond what the Taliban have prescribed for them, meant that the “pushback” from the Afghan women would draw significant attention from the international media. After all, it’s the new culture war in Afghanistan.
Also read: The world must not look away as Taliban sexually enslaves women and girls
Colourful response to terror
Many ask if the Taliban have changed. What people forget to look at is how the Internet has changed Afghan women. They are finding newer ways of protesting and online spaces like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc are where they find a voice, if not on the Taliban-crowded streets of Afghanistan.
Journalist Malali Bashir had long been painting Afghan women in various attires and dances to document Afghan culture and tell people “how I remember Afghan women while growing up”.
Attan is #Afghanistan’s national dance performed in group circles.
I painted this Attan as this is how I remember Afghan women while growing up.
This is us, not being lashed or stoned. We will remain poets. We will remain artists. We will preserver.
#WorldArtDay2021 pic.twitter.com/l7VQCRiVIF
— Malali Bashir (@MalaliBashir) April 15, 2021
The ongoing protest movement just gave her another reason to continue her work.
I paint #Afghan women in traditional clothes to show the world our beautiful culture. One of my old paintings ? pic.twitter.com/z8FcB7CCcp
— Malali Bashir (@MalaliBashir) September 13, 2021
PTM member and human rights activist Spozhmay Maseed was one of the social media users who posted her photograph with the caption: “The black burqa never has been part of the Afghan culture.”
This is our Afghan authentic dress. Afghan women wear such colorful and modest attires. The black burqa never has been part of the Afghan culture. #FreeAfghanistan?? pic.twitter.com/v9LIbcvklG
— Spozhmay Maseed (@spozhmey) September 12, 2021
Even illustrators from South Korea joined the hashtag movement.
No one has the right to destroy culture#DoNotTouchMyClothes #AfghanistanCulture pic.twitter.com/6w5sWwijMp
— KWS (@kgproject2) September 15, 2021
Also read: The Taliban in Afghanistan has not changed. Just ask women
The art of resistance
We have usually understood traditional clothing as ‘limiting’ for women, mostly because it is dictated upon them. Also, ‘traditional’ is often understood to be modest, and indicative of a woman’s ‘good’ character, and/or compliance with ‘upholding’ culture.
But in this particular instance, the colourful Hazarangi dresses are being worn by Afghan women everywhere. It is an heirloom that has now become the most powerful way of pushing back against the rule that is trying to check women’s bodies and choices.
As Jalali says, she started the campaign because “one of my biggest concerns is Afghanistan’s identity and sovereignty is under attack”.
Some Afghan women have already started dressing more modestly and the “chadari” – the blue garment with only a mesh rectangle in front of the eyes – has made a comeback. It has been also reported how burqa shops are making brisk business with the return of the Taliban.
But if this protest movement is anything to go by, all is not bleak in Afghanistan. The resistance is here to stay, and it is through the act of resisting that the courageous Afghan women are making a statement, regardless of what the outcome would be. The Taliban have returned to face a ‘new generation’ of Afghan women who will not give up.
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(Edited by Prashant)