No to burqa, yes to abaya

Afghan women are embracing trends from the Gulf

Young, urban women in Afghanistan are increasingly ditching the all-enveloping blue burqa with a face mesh that has become a symbol of the Taliban’s oppression of women.

Since their return to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed an ultra-strict vision of Islamic law, modelled on their previous rule from 1996 to 2001.

But while women must still have their bodies and faces covered, restrictions from the feared religious police do not specifically mention the burqa.

So young women are instead following fashions seen in many Gulf nations.

Many prefer a flowing abaya robe, worn with a hijab headscarf and often a face covering as well – sometimes a medical mask, or a Saudi-style cloth niqab veil that exposes only the eyes.

“The new generation would never accept wearing a burqa, because of the design and colour,” said 23-year-old Tahmina Adel in the capital Kabul.

With social media, “everybody follows the trends”, Adel added, who was forced to quit her economics degree because of the Taliban government’s ban on women’s education.

“I prefer wearing an abaya because I am comfortable in that,” she said.

Young women in Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif said that abayas and headscarves offer more freedom of expression than burqas, with a variation in colour, material and pattern.

“Only elders wear a burqa,” said Razia Khaliq, as she embroidered one at a workshop in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Khaliq began wearing the billowing head-to-toe burqa aged 13, like her mother and grandmother before her.

But her daughter, in her 20s, prefers the abaya.

“Young people wear the abaya because it is more comfortable,” Khaliq said.

‘Stifling’

The burqa has long roots in Afghanistan. It was strictly enforced during the first Taliban government rule of Afghanistan, when women were lashed for failing to wear one in public.