Threats of violence and death against women for wearing the wrong clothes are not only inhumane but extremely misogynistic, writes Johanna Higgs.
A YOUNG Afghan male said:
“Everybody should be free to wear what they want.”
I was sat in an empty classroom of an English school in the small village of Shugnan, Afghanistan with two male Afghan teachers and we were talking about women’s rights. The village was quiet and remote, goat herders ushered their goats around the outskirts of the enormous snowcapped mountains that surrounded us and a narrow shimmering, blue river snaked the border with neighbouring Tajikistan.
The view was spectacular.
As Ishmaeli Muslims, the village was relatively less conservative than other Sunni-dominated parts of Afghanistan. Women moved freely through the village and weren’t hidden under the long blue burka, as they were in other parts of the country.
One of the teachers pulled out two pictures of Afghan women in the 1970s. In the first photo, there were two women wearing knee-length skirts and blouses. This was Afghanistan before the very conservative ideas that now dominate the country had taken over.
The second photo was of how many women dress now.
It was of a woman in a long blue burka, her body totally covered, not even her eyes could be seen.
The differences were stark and were illustrative of the dramatic changes that Afghanistan has undergone over the last 30 years in its shift to highly conservative Islamic rule, markedly so under the Taliban’s most recent return.
Though it has not always been this way.
Influenced by the Soviet Union, Afghanistan first began to modernise in the middle of the 20th Century, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, though certainly still maintained a conservative element in comparison with its Western counterparts. Kabul began to see the construction of modern buildings and burkas were not forced. Afghanistan certainly appeared to be on a path towards modernisation.
However, in the 1970s, after a series of bloody coups, invasions and civil wars, and the growth of more conservative elements in the country, Afghanistan set on a trajectory backwards to its most recent point with the return of the Taliban to power.
Now the gains made towards modernisation and women’s rights have all but been halted. The Taliban has increasingly imposed restrictions on women’s dress and movement, despite its initial promises to not do so.
Curious as to what these two men thought about the changes that Afghanistan had undergone, I asked: “Which one is better?”
They both pointed to the women in skirts and blouses:
“That one, of course. This is what women should be wearing.”
One of the teachers explained:
“But in some provinces in Afghanistan, if women wear short clothes then everybody will criticise her. In most places in Afghanistan, they also tell the men that they can’t wear pants, they have to wear Islamic clothes, have a beard and pray five times a day.”
Another teacher explained:
“In areas controlled by the Taliban, should a woman be caught not wearing a burka, she would most likely be killed.”
When I asked them how they felt about this, they both agreed, that they did not like it.
“Everybody should be free,” one of the teachers said.
Indeed, everybody should be free.
However, in Afghanistan and in much of the world, both women and men are not free to choose how they dress.
I felt the strain of the strict dress codes myself. Whilst I was not wearing a burka, I was aware that in Afghanistan, I would be expected to adhere to their strict dress codes and there would be little tolerance for not doing so.
I also didn’t like it.
I didn’t like not being allowed the freedom to choose what I would wear or how I could express myself through my clothing. I also didn’t like the fact that as a woman, I could be threatened with harassment, violence or even death for not conforming to dress codes imposed by others.
Though this problem of punishing women for their choice of dress is a global problem.
In far too many places throughout the world, a woman’s value and worth are based on how she is dressed. They state that it is a man’s right to justify violence and abuse towards her, to disrespect or harass her, based on her perceived worth, determined in accordance with her clothing.
Threats that I can’t help but note are not made to men.
Back in Shugnan, the two teachers showed me another photo, this one where a woman had her nose cut off, a punishment that can take place for an infraction as small as what she was wearing.
One of the teachers said:
“There are some people here in Afghanistan who don’t want women to be free.”
However, despite these strict rules being imposed on women by the Taliban, not everybody is happy with them. Hashtags such as #DoNotTouchMyClothes and #AfghanistanCulture, a campaign started by Dr Bahar Jalali, a former history professor at the American University in Afghanistan, have been posted by women across Afghanistan, showing images of Afghan women in bright and elaborate patterns, demonstrating that traditional dress in their country has not always included women being completely covered.
Human Rights Watch has reported women in Herat organising protests in defence of women’s rights after the Taliban’s takeover. The protesters were calling for the Taliban to respect their basic rights, such as being able to choose what they wear.
As the Taliban continues to impose its highly conservative rule over the women in Afghanistan and we begin to see, or more specifically, not see women on the streets of Afghanistan as they become hidden under the long, blue burkas, we need to reflect upon this question globally. Why do we force women to dress in certain ways and why do we threaten them when they don’t?
More specifically, why do we not make these same threats to men?
Why do we justify threats of rape and harassment towards women for their choice of clothing, but not men?
Why do we judge women for their clothing but don’t impose these same stringent judgements on men?
Globally, we need to understand that it is a woman’s right to choose her clothing as a fundamental human right and it is also her fundamental human right to not be punished for what she has chosen to wear.
“I don’t like these things,” said a young female English student at the school:
Everyone should respect women and women should be free to wear the kinds of clothes they want. If men have rights, then women should have rights, too.
We are both humans.
I couldn’t agree more.
Johanna Higgs is an anthropologist and founder of Project MonMa, which advocates for women’s rights around the world.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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