Kabul, Afghanistan (Commonwealth Union)_There is a danger of being beheaded for no fault of their own! The Taliban has issued a diktat to dress merchants and fashion houses that all mannequins are to be hooded and masked or face danger of being beheaded. The sight seen in dress shops are haunting to say the least, with beautifully attired mannequins hooded in sacks and black plastic bags and masked, resembling their final trip and that too to the guillotine.
The puritanical rule of the Taliban, which established a Ministry of Vice and Virtue when it seized power in August 2021, has been on a singular path of a fundamentalist interpretation of the Islamic Law. This newest decree comes in the wake of its interpretation in which it states Islamic Law forbids statues and images of the human form as it could lead to idol worship.
However, the successive directives that have come into force against women including banning university education, compulsory covering and wearing of the Taliban approved burka (a full head to toe covering made of a rubberized material which makes it impossible for women to live and work comfortably), banning of women on streets unless accompanied by a close male relative and harsh punishments for those who violate these rules, including stoning. Basically, it is about forcing women out of the public eye.
There is a semblance of pushing back by Kabul’s fashion and fabric industry. Initially, the Taliban wanted all mannequins to be beheaded but continuous (and courageous) complaints by the merchants that clothes couldn’t be displayed properly on beheaded mannequins and damaging expensive mannequins by removing their heads would have economic consequences. This prompted a slight change. Mannequins could remain in the windows, but with heads covered and faces masked.
And the merchants have become creative. The more sophisticated merchants have matched the hoods and masks to the elaborate dresses the mannequins are wearing – embellished with elaborate gold thread, beads and stones to ensure customers’ eyes will see more than a masked and hooded doll. But the Ministry doesn’t let go. It patrols the dress shops and malls regularly to ensure the mannequins are covered and if rules are disobeyed, the ultimate fate awaits the mannequin, beheading with the shop owner facing dire consequences as well.
Under the Taliban, Afghanistan’s economy has collapsed and gender-segregation is high on its agenda. After August 2021, the country’s regular economy lost nearly USD 5 billion and reversed what had taken ten years to accumulate in just twelve months. Nearly 70,000 jobs have vanished and by restricting women from work, the economic loss could be upto USD 1 billion, that’s 5 percent of the Afghanistan’s GDP.
