The Burqa in Afghanistan

Up until 1996 when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan you could see any of these

types of outfits worn:

(no head covering, head covering, or burqa)

The full Afghan chadri (burqa) covers the wearer's entire face except for a small region about the eyes, which is covered by a concealing net or grille.
Before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, the chadri was infrequently worn in cities. While they were in power, the Taliban treatment of women required the wearing of a chadri in public. Officially, it is not required under the present Afghan regime, but local warlords still enforce it in southern Afghanistan. Burqa use in the remainder of Afghanistan is variable and is observed to be gradually declining in Kabul. Due to political instability in these areas, women who might not otherwise be inclined to wear the chadri must do so as a matter of personal safety.   (wikipedia)

                                           

Burqa-chadari, is a full body and head covering for outside the home for many women in Afghanistan. The Burqa is constructed of about ten yards fabric with an embroidered mesh face piece which conceals the entire women's dress ensemble of pants, overdress, and head scarf.
The burqa is not only worn in Afghanistan but it's more common in other countries including India and Pakistan. The original chadari has Persian origins but over the time period it became associated with the urban dress of middle and upper class Afghan women. The chadaree has been incorrectly attributed as Afghan women's traditional dress but it only became mandated women's wear after dress sanctions were imposed by the Taliban in 1996.

During the Taliban women had to wear this piece of heavy cloth on top of their normal clothing to cover them from the head to lower calf or to ankle. In the first days when the Taliban captured Kabul and announced that all women have to wear 'Chadaree' outside of home, many women were shocked, especially in the capital Kabul. They wondered how they were going to wear 3 pounds of extra weight of clothes on top of their formal and informal clothing. It was really difficult for the women who had never worn it before.

I was living in Kabul during that time and I witnessed many women falling off bicycles and being hit by cars when their burqa-Chadari went under the tire of the bicycle. Also, injuries occured when they were transported on the back of the cycle and their Chadari got caught in the spokes. Women also frequently simply tripped and fell because it was cumbersome to walk in. After a couple months of wearing this piece of cloth on a daily basis, Afghan women got used to wearing it. Every woman, including my mom and my female relatives experienced the problems of wearing the Chadari during the hot summer times and cold, icy, slippery winter times. The toughest times for wearing this blue huge piece of cloth was the hottest days of the summer when the temperature was around 46 Celsius which is about 114 Fahrenheit and every woman had to have their normal clothing as well as the chadari on top.

The air circulation of the burqa-chadari is very poor and there is a small mesh face piece on the front top part so the wearer can barely see the pathway. Due to lack of air in 114 Fahrenheit hot weather, women who have shortness of breath or Asthma often faint on the streets. During the five years of the Taliban regime every single woman has experienced the problems of wearing the Chadari in Afghanistan. After the fall of Taliban in 2001, a small percentage of women, mostly in Kabul, were free from wearing this blue piece of cloth. Around other parts of Afghanistan still the culture of wearing burqa remains as some Afghan women are forced to wear the 'burqa-chadari' whether by their families or the society laws.
http://www.afghanistan-culture.com/index.html

'Love Crimes of Kabul' - coming out July 11th

A documentary about three women imprisoned for 'moral crimes' is coming out July 11th on HBO.  I'm looking forward to seeing it!  The only synopsis I can find is a little cheesy, but here it is from hrw.org:

Jailed for running away from home to escape abuse, for allegations of adultery, and other “moral crimes,” the women of Afghanistan’s Badum Bagh prison band together to fight for their freedom. The film follows three young prisoners as they go to trial, revealing the pressures and paradoxes that women in Afghanistan face today, and the dangerous consequences of refusing to fit into society’s norms. Their defiant actions come to be seen as threats to the very fabric of society, and their acts of self-determination as illegal. Will life outside prison enable these women to experience the freedom they desire? Filmmaker Tanaz Eshaghian brings us into the lives of these “outsiders,” and we watch as teenage romantics learn to become steely-eyed negotiators in an effort to secure their future, brokering their freedom with courage, charm, and skill. This HBO Documentary Film premieres on HBO on July 11, 2011.

Also, here is the official website for the documentary.  HBO - Love Crimes of Kabul

Support and promote Afghan artists

This website is a virtual gallery for artists in Afghanistan.  The site creators want to show the talent in Afghanistan instead of the war and chaos that we normally see on the news. 

Be sure to click on the link and see the galleries of paintings and drawings, as well as information about the artists and how to donate to promote the artists. 

Virtual Gallery for Afghan Artists

Attan - the national dance of Afghanistan

(this one is from 1978, probably for Afghan TV)

Attan is a traditional Afghan dance. Done by both men and female.  It is said to be one of oldest Afghan Pagan dance, some identify Attan as an a religious ceremony of early Zoroastrians placing it 2000 BCE, and some have placed even older going back to King Yama's celebration of Nowroz and warriors dancing and circling around the fire. King Yama was the first Afghan king dating back to 3500 BCE. This was later modified into an Islamic dance to allow the dancers to get 'closer to God' this virtual Attan practised by many Afghan poets and mystics had even reached to corners of Turkey, Europe known as the Rumi Dance. It is performed usually with a Dhol, which is a double-headed barrel drum. The dance can be anywhere from 5 minute to 30 minutes long. There are many different kinds of Attan most famous are Kabuli, Paktiyaya (Done by Pakthiwals is more complex), Mazari, Kandahari, Sistani, Herati, Pashayi, and Nuristani.

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Widows in Afghanistan during the Taliban

The first major war was in 1979 when Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviets. 

'The 10-year Soviet occupation resulted in the killings of between 600,000 and two million Afghans, mostly civilians.'  (wikipedia article about Afghanistan)

Then there was the civil war from 1989-1996.  Believe it or not I could not find a number of deaths during the civil war, but it has got to be in the hundreds of thousands, if a few million people.  

This created how many widows... 100,000?  500,000? 

Then the Taliban invaded and took control.  Here are some of the rules they implimented for all women:


Taliban restrictions and mistreatment of women include the:
1- Complete ban on women's work outside the home, which also applies to female teachers, engineers and most professionals. Only a few female doctors and nurses are allowed to work in some hospitals in Kabul.
2- Complete ban on women's activity outside the home unless accompanied by a mahram (close male relative such as a father, brother or husband).
3- Ban on women dealing with male shopkeepers.
4- Ban on women being treated by male doctors.
5- Ban on women studying at schools, universities or any other educational institution. (Taliban have converted girls' schools into religious seminaries.)
6- Requirement that women wear a long veil (Burqa), which covers them from head to toe.
7- Whipping, beating and verbal abuse of women not clothed in accordance with Taliban rules, or of women unaccompanied by a mahram.
8- Whipping of women in public for having non-covered ankles.
9- Public stoning of women accused of having sex outside marriage.
10- Ban on the use of cosmetics. (Many women with painted nails have had fingers cut off).
11- Ban on women talking or shaking hands with non-mahram males.
12- Ban on women laughing loudly. (No stranger should hear a woman's voice).
13- Ban on women wearing high heel shoes, which would produce sound while walking. (A man must not hear a woman's footsteps.)
14- Ban on women riding in a taxi without a mahram.
15- Ban on women's presence in radio, television or public gatherings of any kind.
16- Ban on women playing sports or entering a sport center or club.
17- Ban on women riding bicycles or motorcycles, even with their mahrams.
18- Ban on women's wearing brightly colored clothes. In Taliban terms, these are "sexually attracting colors."
19- Ban on women gathering for festive occasions such as the Eids, or for any recreational purpose.
20- Ban on women washing clothes next to rivers or in a public place.
21- Modification of all place names including the word "women." For example, "women's garden" has been renamed "spring garden".
22- Ban on women appearing on the balconies of their apartments or houses.
23- Compulsory painting of all windows, so women can not be seen from outside their homes. 24- Ban on male tailors taking women's measurements or sewing women's clothes.
25- Ban on female public baths.
26- Ban on males and females traveling on the same bus.
27- Ban on flared (wide) pant-legs, even under a burqa.
28- Ban on the photographing or filming of women.
29- Ban on women's pictures printed in newspapers and books, or hung on the walls of houses and shops.                    (from rawa.org)

Imagine a widow:  She most likely has no 'male guardian' so she can not leave her house.  Literally.  How does she survive?  How does she shop for food?  How does she earn money for food? 

After the Taliban fell from power things changed, but we'll talk about that another time.