#DoNotTouchMyClothes: Afghan women send strong message to Taliban

The hashtag, created by Afghan historian Dr Bahar Jalali, seeks to make the world aware of the Taliban's cultural misappropriation

The Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan has sounded a death knell for women's rights in the war-torn country, with the Islamist group mandating head-to-toe coverings and gender-segregated classrooms in schools and universities.

Nonetheless, a new generation of women has been protesting the regressive mandates imposed by the interim government on the streets and on social media.

The latest among such protests is #DoNotTouchMyClothes, a hashtag by Afghan historian Dr Bahar Jalali, who sought to make the world aware of the Taliban's cultural misappropriation.

In Pics | In protest against Taliban clothing mandate, Afghan women share photos dressed in traditional attire

On September 12, Jalali posted a picture of herself in a traditional Afghan dress in a bid to point out that the burqa was never a part of Afghan culture.

After Dr Jalali sent the aforementioned tweet, several thousand women have posted pictures of themselves in similar outfits. Dr Jalali, a professor at the American University of Afghanistan, also began the country's first gender studies program.

Her tweet was a response to a 'veiled protest' held by a handful of women in and around Kabul University where they pledged support to the Taliban.

"No woman has ever dressed like this in the history of Afghanistan. This is utterly foreign and alien to Afghan culture. I posted my pic in the traditional Afghan dress to inform, educate, and dispel the misinformation that is being propagated by Taliban," she had said on Twitter.

Through her campaign, Dr Jalali and several other women hailing from different regions of Afghanistan sought to highlight that traditional Afghan attire for women never meant the monotone burqa but was instead bright, colourful dresses adorned with tiny mirrors and intricate designs.

On Saturday, the Taliban replaced the existing Women Ministry with an all-male “vice and virtue ministry" tasked with enforcing the group's rigid interpretation of Islam.

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