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The traditional clothes that Afghani women wear are more westernised than those worn by their Indian counterparts. They also wear long skirts, trousers and smart-looking coats and jackets, says
Jayalakshmi Sengupta
A "sartorial switch" to wearing wedding gowns (instead of traditional lehenga cholis) may be stirring the headlines in India today but in Afghanistan it is surprisingly common. All along the pavements of Kabul`A0and the Kabul City Centre mall, fashionable high-end shops display a variety of chic and modern evening gowns, ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 30,000 equivalent in Afghan currency. The obvious questions that crop up in the mind of a visitor are: Do brides really wear these dresses? Can they even afford them considering the fledgling economy? However, these gowns are worn during the wedding ceremonies quite regularly. A different colour for different occasions. "But the locals don’t buy them. They simply hire them for the different days and return them when the festivities are over," informs Qazi, a resident of Kabul. "They usually wear a green gown on the occasion of henna or may be peach one but everyone wears a white one on the wedding day," he adds. A picture of this war- ravaged country and its complicated history may have become clearer in recent times with`A0best-selling writer Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns as it traces protagonist Mariam’s journey through the two decades of struggle in Afghanistan, but nothing prepares one for the surprises actually in store in the post-Taliban Afghanistan. Most of it essentially relates to how we perceive the life of the women in a burqa. Pathetic, dull, confining and restricting? Muslim women here, as we understand, are extremely conservative in their public appearance and are not meant to show any part of their bodies. Our idea of them being very poor further accentuates the impression of their being lost in some old-fashioned, obsolete, traditional world. But this is far from the truth. What we do not know is that their traditional clothes are, in fact, far more westernised than an average Indian’s. The poor Afghanis tucked away in the mountains may not dress as nattily as the town girls but compared to their compatriots in India, they look surprisingly smart in their westernised attire. Even when dressed modestly in loose-fitting clothes, their dresses are directly influenced by Iranian, middle eastern and Tashkent outfits. Women here wear long skirts and trousers with ankle-length skirts over them with smart looking coats and jackets to go on top. Though black salwar kameez with a white dupatta is the official school uniform all over the country, at home they prefer wrap-arounds and long skirts. The scarf or chador they wear to cover their heads at all times as per Islamic traditions only make them look more elegant. The burqa is used like an overcoat that is worn only while travelling outside. Experience shows that the young generation anywhere, no matter whether they come from inaccessible and far-flung areas, manages to upset the older generation by carving out a style statement of its own. But the satellite communication does much more. It creates a global cohort of clones who wear the same belts and watches and the same denim jackets to perfectly blend into the global style statement. The same is true of Afghanistan, too. For example, Faizabad, the capital of Badakshan (the northern most province of Afghanistan), lying towards the north of the Hindukush, has a`A0terrain that is mostly inaccessible and inhospitable— the reason why it managed to escape the onslaught of the Taliban rule altogether. It remained under the control of the United Front for the longest time, thus enjoying a period of comparative peace. Many of the 27 districts of this province are so remote that they are still inaccessible by vehicle in the winters. Darwaz and Kahan still have no roads connecting them to the provincial capital of Faizabad. For the local people, the preferred mode of transport is the donkey. Badakshan also has no electricity (as in many places in Afghanistan) and relies mostly on firewood for fuel, which is getting scarcer by the day. With limited telephone and radio communication, one would imagine its one million-odd population to be absolutely clueless about the outside world, living in some forgotten ghetto of an antiquated lifestyle. But to the utter astonishment, you learn how cheap Chinese diesel generators, satellite connections, dish antennas and mobile phones have swamped these far-flung places and kept even the most lost-looking soul in the remote corners surprisingly abreast of modern changes around the world. This is reflected in women’s fashion as well. Granted that their ethnic mix of Tajik, Uzbek and Turks make them more affiliated to Central Asia and, therefore, more open-minded. But even then you little expect that beneath their burqas the women sport red fur jackets, white pearl-studded polo necks, fancy black leather coats, dainty stockings and matching handbags and mobiles. Most of these are easily available in the local market of Faizabad at reasonable rates and not smuggled across the borders. A denim jacket may come for Rs 500 in Indian money and the red fur coat will be in that same range. Even if one in a hundred, it is always the uptown girl, who speaks about the kind of exposure available to their developing community in the post Taliban-era. Zulia, a local journalist from Faizabad, is the perfect epitome of a woman who is more than just chic. Once inside the safety of the four walls of her office, out goes her burqa. As she gets busy with the day’s work (looking very professional and yet ravishing in a long denim jacket and a pair of matching stretched jeans), she extends her pen drive and asks: "Do you think you can give me a copy of the Microsoft publisher? I desperately need it to design the magazine I have to edit for Badakshan Development Forum." In a way, her fashionable appearance speaks of a new attitudinal change among women in the hinterland of Afghanistan. —TWF
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