Afghan women around the world wear colorful dresses to protest the Taliban | Abroad

Much has changed for Afghan students now that the Taliban has taken control of the country. For example, the new system wants women and men to receive a separate education and for female students to wear black robes that cover their bodies to the face.

About 300 Afghan women organized a demonstration at Kabul University to show their approval of the new dress code. In response, hundreds of Afghan women around the world have posted pictures in colorful traditional clothes on social media using the hashtag. #DoNotTouchMyClothes. They want to show that black hooded robes are not part of Afghan culture.

The movement started with Dr. Bahar Jalali, historian and founder of the first gender studies program in Afghanistan. “This is Afghan culture,” she wrote. “I wear the traditional Afghan dress.”

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Many women, inspired by Jalali, posted a photo of their colorful Afghani clothes. For example, Bimana Asad, the first woman of Afghan descent to be elected to public political office in England, posted a picture saying, “Our fashions are not the ones the Taliban want women to wear.”

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Dutch women have also made themselves heard using the hashtag. Dutch Mariam Safi tweeted, “Afghan fashion is extravagant. Every region and every ethnic group has its own clothes with their own patterns, fabrics and colors. Accessories also differ from region to region.”

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With the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan, many women fear for the rights they have fought so hard for in recent years. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs, which had advocated the liberation of Afghan women for years, was dissolved and replaced by the Ministry of “Combating Vice and Promoting Virtue” with the aim of implementing Islamic law across the country.

Watch our videos on the situation in Afghanistan here: