Afghan women across the world have started the #DoNotTouchMyClothes campaign raising their strong voices against the Taliban’s strict new dress code for female students with a powerful social media campaign.
Dr. Bahar Jalali, a former history professor at the American University in Afghanistan has first started the online campaign by using hashtags #DoNotTouchMyClothes and #AfghanistanCulture to promote Afghan women’s traditional dresses highlighting the richness and diversity of their culture.
She posted a picture of herself on Twitter in a green Afghan dress and urged other Afghan women to share theirs to show “the true face of Afghanistan”.
The move came after the Taliban’s new government recently announced a strict new dress code for female students that they will be allowed to attend gender-separated classes in universities, but only in proper Islamic dress codes.
Dr. Jalali told BBC that she started the campaign because “one of my biggest concerns is Afghanistan’s identity and sovereignty is under attack”.
“I wanted to inform the world the attires that you’ve been seeing in the media [referring to those worn by women at the pro-Taliban rally] that’s not our culture, that’s not our identity,” BBC reported her as saying.
Other Afghan women continuously sharing pictures of themselves in colorful traditional dresses from across the country, in complete opposition to the black hijab mandated by the Taliban.
The head of the Afghan service at DW News, Waslat Hasrat-Nazimi, also uploaded a photo of herself wearing the traditional Afghani dress.
Afghan Journalist Malali Bashir has also uploaded a painting of ‘Attan’ which is Afghanistan’s national dance.
“I painted this Attan as this is how I remember Afghan women while growing up, “ she said in a tweet.
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