Afghan Women Protest Against the Taliban Via Social Media

Women around the world are posting pictures of themselves in traditional colorful clothes in a campaign against the Taliban, which imposed a strict dress code for female students.

After violent clashes on the streets between protestors and the Taliban, women have now taken to social media platforms to protest against the Taliban’s aggressive policies towards them. 

Afghan women have been sharing photos of themselves wearing traditional colorful clothes while using the hashtag #DoNotTouchMyClothes. The dresses worn by the women are handmade embroidery. They feature heavy designs and small mirrors which decorate the dress with long pleated skirts. 

The #DoNotTouchMyClothes campaign was a reaction that arose as a response to a sit-down demonstration organised by the Taliban at Kabul University, where around 300 women were shown in all-black garments, which covered their faces, hands and feet. 

The women whom the Taliban gathered waved Taliban flags, saying they supported the militants who have proclaimed that women will not be allowed to hold high-ranking government positions and that both schools and universities needed to be gender-segregated. 

The ministry of women’s affairs is not part of the new regime the Taliban imposed over Afghanistan. Instead, the Taliban has bought back the ministry of propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice, which ensures the implementation of the sharia law across the country. 

Women in Afghanistan fear that their freedoms will be limited, similarly to the Taliban regime between 1996 and 2001, where women were largely confined to their homes. 

The Afghan historian and gender studies expert Dr Bahar Jalali was the first to post a photo using the #DoNotTouchMyClothes hashtag, which has now spread across the globe and inspired other women. 

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