#DoNotTouchMyClothes: against the Taliban, Afghan women defend their traditional outfits

A woman poses in traditional Afghan attire in Stockholm.

WAZHMA SAYLE via REUTERS - WAZHMA SAYLE

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Afghan women have launched a protest movement against the new dress code imposed on students by the Taliban for several days.

On Twitter, they post pictures of themselves in traditional Afghan outfits using the hashtag #DoNotTouchMyClothes (Hands off my clothes) or #AfghanistanCulture. 

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With our correspondent in Islamabad,

Sonia ghezali

The movement was born after the

pro-Taliban demonstration organized at a university in Kabul

last week.

Women dressed all in black, feet and hands covered, a veil falling over their faces gathered in an amphitheater at a university in the capital to express their support for religious fundamentalists.

An unprecedented image in Afghanistan.

Many Afghan women express their astonishment and confess that they have never seen such outfits in Afghanistan.

On the internet, a surfer dares to compare it with Nazgul, the black riders of the American-Zeeland cinematographic trilogy.

Colorful dresses vs. black Islamic outfits 

That's when the

hashtag

#DoNotTouchMyClothes (Don't touch my clothes) appears.

Afghan women from all over the world post pictures of themselves in traditional outfits: in Baloch, Turkmen, Kushis, Hazaradjat dresses, all colored, set with small mirrors, multicolored embroidery ... Matched with long veils in bright colors, hat topped with colored wool pom poms and silver Afghan coins.

This is our real culture, we read above some of the clichés.

Afghan women have started online campaign to protest Taliban's dress code.

They post their photos with their traditional clothes and use #DoNotTouchMyClothes, #AfghanistanCulture and #AfghanWomen tags.

pic.twitter.com/75EY5EYOMK

- sibghat ullah (@ sibghat51539988) September 12, 2021

Afghan women who post their photos in traditional dress often live abroad.

Those in Afghanistan fear exposing themselves and putting themselves in danger.

Mina, a journalist in Kabul who has stopped working since the Taliban took power, says that he is morally at the lowest level.

When referring to these black Islamic outfits that have emerged in the Afghan capital, she confides: “

I am convinced that this culture will destroy Afghan culture and that of Kabul.

"

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  • Afghanistan

  • Women

  • Taliban