At the weekend, the image of a pro-Taliban event circulated on the Internet.
It showed several dozen women in full black veils in the lecture hall of a university in Kabul, where they speak out against education for women and for the Taliban.
Maria Wiesner
Editor in the Society department at FAZ.NET.
Follow I follow
The academic and development expert Bahar Jalali was furious: “No woman in the history of Afghanistan has worn something like this. These clothes are completely alien to Afghan culture, ”she wrote on Twitter.
Jalali had initiated a program for mentoring women in Afghanistan in recent years and founded the country's first gender studies program. On Sunday, she published a photo on her social media channels showing her in a bright green dress with elaborate red and blue embroidery on the hem and top. It is a traditional Afghan robe. She also wears make-up and her fingers are adorned with numerous rings. “This is what Afghan culture looks like,” she wrote. And: "I published the picture to show a traditional Afghan dress to inform, educate and dispel the misinformation spread by the Taliban."
The German-Afghan journalist Waslat Hasrat-Nazimi, who worked as the head of the Afghan program for Deutsche Welle, responded to the call and posted a picture showing her in a bright blue dress with red embroidery and gold borders.
More than 50 different ethnic groups live in Afghanistan, including Baluch, Pashtuns, Tajiks and Uzbeks.
As numerous as the cultural influences are the differences in the costumes in which the women show themselves on Twitter.
Multimedia journalist Tahmina Aziz, who lives in Canada, also shared a photo showing her in traditional Afghan dress.
She added: “It is important to underline that our culture goes well beyond clothing.
This also includes poetry, music, art, sport - everything that was either forbidden or compromised under Taliban rule. "
Other Afghan women post photos online that show them dancing.
Every dress is a reminder that the Taliban do not represent the country's culture.