From miniskirt to burqa: Story of Afghan women

Ground Report | New Delhi: From miniskirt to burqa; As soon as the Taliban took control of the Afghan city of Kabul, images of the chaos spread there went viral on social media. Meanwhile, some old photos were also posted on social media in which some Afghan women can be seen happily wearing mini skirts on the streets of Kabul.

From miniskirt to burqa

These photos are from the 1970s. The people who posted the pictures were trying to show that although most of the people of this country are bound by Muslim traditions and customs, in the past Afghan women had every right to live the life of their choice.

Many also remember the Taliban's period from 1996 to 2001, when it was mandatory for men to wear beards and for women to wear burqas. The Taliban also banned TV, music, and cinema, and girls ten years of age or older from going to school.

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1970s photo

US National Security Adviser McMaster showed photos of 1970s Afghan women wearing miniskirts to persuade them to maintain a US military presence in the country for 16 years, The Washington Post reported this week.

This is not the first time that Afghan women's clothing has been used to justify war. Back in 2001, Republicans adopted the blue burqa, worn by many Afghan women - and enforced as law by the Taliban, then in power - as a symbol of the oppression of women. Continuing the long history of collusion with imperialism, some feminists began to rally around American guns and missiles as the best hope of "liberating" Afghan women - apparently considering Not that bombing a country and killing thousands of people hardly makes any way out.

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Like the Europeans who supported the "civilizational mission" of colonialism before them, this new generation of colonial feminists jumped on the bandwagon to "liberate" the women of Afghanistan without considering that it was at gunpoint. What will be the salvation?

Sixteen years later, America is still occupying Afghanistan, and women are hardly free. In fact, heavy-handed US tactics have isolated large sections of the population and fueled a Taliban insurgency, now accompanied by an ISIS insurgency. While there are bright spots of progress across the country, these often happen despite the support of the American occupation and corrupt central government.

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