Burqa Emporium
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho
Well I am not sure if this shop would count as a “emporium” but the only thing they sold was burqas. I should have gotten a photo but they had burqas for children (bought my cousins one, should be interesting to see their reaction) and even a burqa for dolls! I know westerners who have tried wearing a burqa and found it to be intolerable, not being able to see, hard to breath, etc; and in reality (or in Kabul, not sure about other areas) women here sometimes wear buraqs but flip the front up so they can see (and exposing their faces but they don’t seem to care).
I have been told different things by different people about why the buraqs are worn the main reason is so men can’t see how women look and many times women only wear them because their husbands make them do so. But there are many conservative women in Afghanistan, the cook for my organization (who is ethnic Tajik, not typically as conservative as some other ethnic groups here) wears a burqa outdoors but her husband died a few years ago so it is obviously of her own will (she also never comes out of the kitchen either but doesn’t seem to care too much if I come in and see her). Another odd (to me) example is an Afghan friend of mine (who is a *really* nice guy and ethnic Pashto, who tend to be more conservative), his wife wears a burqa and not because he make her (she requires it). He actually has a funny story; his family lives in Pakistan where women also wear something that is similar to a burqa but you can see their eyes (in Afghanistan you can’t see any part of their face) and his wife was getting stares for wearing an afghan burqa but she refused to “expose” herself by wearing a Pakistani style dress so he had to buy sunglasses for her at which point she finally yielded and wore the Pakistani style clothes. Different cultures.
Posts
