Word: burqa
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Three summers ago, as an intern at the Feminist Majority Foundation, I cut out little squares of blue mesh fabric, the same fabric that formed the peepholes through which Afghani women wearing a burqa saw the world. I distributed these cloth emblems to Americans, to wear as tokens of remembrance for and solidarity with the women oppressed by the Taliban...
...hard to believe that women who are hidden under a burqa retain a sense of style, but they do. This year's trendy color for burqas is a pale sky blue. A few years back it was a coppery brown. The fashion center for burqas -the Paris, if you will, of Afghanistan - is Herat. Afghan women rave about the delicacy of its embroidery, the exquisite pleating which gives the burqa a shimmering, watery feel but which takes hours to iron...
...Most educated Afghan women I've spoken to loathe the burqa. It induces panic, claustrophobia and headaches. It's a psychological hobbling of women that's akin to Chinese foot binding. It's also life-threatening. Imagine trying to negotiate crossing a busy Kabul street, dodging donkey carts, careening buses and Taliban roaring by in their Datsun pickups when your vision is reduced to a narrow, mesh grid. The plus point of a burqa is that it confers invisibility on a woman. In lawless Afghanistan, that's a necessary shield...
...power of women can be quickly unleashed to the benefit of all the people in Afghanistan. That is not to say women will become "westernized," or abandon important religious or cultural principles. The restoration of women's rights includes the right of free choice. The freedom to wear a burqa if one desires-not to be forced to under pain of death. The freedom to become a doctor, or a homemaker. The freedom to worship in the manner of one's choosing...
...Quetta, a friend was drinking tea with some Afghans, and two woman walked by in burqas. It was almost like the women were in mini-skirts. Hidden under yards of cloth, who knows...they could've been toothless hags. But the Afghan men's imagination was inflamed. They swooned when a breeze hugged the women and made it possible to see the slightest contour of their hips, a fluttering of the burqa around their ankles. So maybe you can understand why there are hundreds of Afghans perched on the wall of our compound watching the four or five women...