And the women share the same thought - that their clothes are their identity. Afghan women wear such colourful and modest attires. The black burqa has never been part of the Afghan culture," tweeted Spozhmay Maseed, a rights activist based in Virginia.
Even those who lived in the most conservative parts of the country say they had never seen women dress in niqabs, a black garment covering the face. Our culture is not dark, it's not black and white - it's colourful and there is beauty, there is art, there is artisanship and there is identity," says Lima Halima Ahmad, a year-old Afghan researcher and founder of Paywand Afghan Association which focuses on women's issues.
As someone who lived and worked in Afghanistan for the past 20 years, Ms Ahmad says: "Women had a choice. My mother wore a long and big veil and some women chose to wear smaller ones.
Dress codes were not enforced on women. Another woman who took part in the Twitter campaign is Malali Bashir, an Afghan journalist based in Prague. She also paints Afghan women in their traditional dresses to "show the world the beauty of our culture".
She says growing up in her village not naming to protect her family "a burqa, either black or blue, was never a norm and women wore their Afghan cultural dresses. Older women wore a black head covering and younger ones wore colourful shawls. Women greeted men by shaking hands," she said. I posted my picture and reshared one of my paintings in which Afghan women are wearing our cultural dresses and dancing the nation dance of Afghanistan called "Attan".
Likewise, the color of the turban wrapped around the kalansuwa varies. White is thought by some Muslims to be the holiest turban color, based on legends that the prophet Mohammed wore a white turban. Green, held to be the color of paradise, is also favored by some. Not all Muslims wear turbans. Afghan men wear a variety of turbans, and even within the Taliban, the strict Islamic government that controls much of the country, there are differences in the way men cover their heads.
This Taliban member, for example, is wearing a very long turban — perhaps two twined together — with one end hanging loose over his shoulder. The Taliban ambassador to Afghanistan, on the other hand, favors a solid black turban tied above his forehead.
And some men in Afghanistan do not wear turbans at all, but rather a distinctive Afghan hat. Sign up for free. Inclusion Program Join over organisations already creating a better workplace. Download this Cultural Profile. Too busy to read it right now? Where do we get our statistics? Cultural Atlas eBook Purchase. Check out Please provide your email to receive your eBook download and receipt. Go To Payment. You will be redirected to our payment portal.
But turbans worn throughout the world by a variety of religious groups — from India to Africa to Europe — also have been seen as a symbol of nobility. In Afghanistan, how a turban is tied shows position and rank. The people in the city of Kandahar, including members of the Taliban, wear flat turbans with long cloth pieces that hit the waist.
The common Afghan men prefer short, flat turbans, he says. Pashtun elders wear turbans in a high, peacock shape. Carvings left by the Assyrians, who lived 3, years ago in the area that is now Iraq, show turbans on the heads of kings. In the Book of Leviticus, reference is made to Jewish high priests wearing turbans. And today, some African-American pop-culture icons wear turbans as fashion statements. In the hadith, or Islamic prophetic sayings, it is recommended that men cover their heads while praying at the mosque, says Hamid Mavani, religious leader at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California in Oakland.
But it is not necessary. Traditionally, that means women should wear a veil, or hijab. In Malaysia and Indonesia, the veils will usually be bright and colorful. In the Arabworld, the veils are often black.
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