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After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, and the establishment of the new Afghan government, people started to forget the law which kept all men and women in a dark cage for five years. Now people, men and women, are wearing anything they like and any loosely fitting clothing which the contours of the body are less noticeable and it’s comfortable for them under the Islamic law.
The Traditional Women Clothing in Afghanistan is really unique and beautiful. It is unique because of the well handmade embroidery and design. The dress is really long and made of cotton with a combination of different colors. The dress comes with a matching trouser, a head scarf, a purse and a flat pair of shoes called Paizar.
The style of pure Afghanistan clothing has changed during several decades of war and cultural invasions and influences of neighboring countries emerged in the region. Currently the normal clothing for women is mostly shirts with jeans, a Pakistani and Indian style dress and trouser called Panjabi along with its matching head scarf for covering the head. These two types of clothing that I just mentioned are mostly worn at home and in family gatherings but the formal office or governmental employees clothing may differ. Some women wear a costume made dress shirt along with long ankle length skirt with a head covering at work, while the other may wear a pair of nice back suit.
Women clothing for inside the house are usually a long knee length dress with a white, black or matching trouser which is mostly made of cotton and worn in summer. This is the basis of Afghanistan's clothing for women. In the northern areas striped material is used, and often dyed red from madder or in shades of blue and brown. Loose sleeveless, hip-length jackets are worn in full-length striped coat for warmth as well.
The typical Afghanistan clothing for men is the long knee lenght dress with the baggy trouser called 'Perahan Tunban' or (Kamiz Shalwar), but people are wearing jeans and suits as well. Men also wear a long-sleeved, calf-length Chapan. This long length coat is typically made of silk, and comes in striped colors of green and black etc. A well made Chapan can be very expansive is normally worn over the Perahan Tunban, and only influential or rich people may afford to wear it.
Men are covering their heads by wearing different types of hats and each one has it particular name such as Qarakul, (made from lamb skin) Pakool, (made of wool) Turban, (made of silk or cotton) or regular caps which mostly come in white and black colors. The current footwear products are mostly Chinese with a small percent of consumers using the (Western made) footwear products from the second hand market. People normally wear flip flops, sandals and regular shoes in the summer time while calf length boots are more common in winter due to large amount of snow and mad on the ground.
The Southern part of the country particularly in Kandahar, Helmand and Jalalabad Provence in the East, people have their own most common footwear which is a black color leather sandals called Chablee and is a part of Afghanistan's Pashtons clothing. In the winter time people wear thick woolen, hand-knitted stockings with leather boots and warm hats due to very cold weather.
The Afghan kids clothing specially the Traditional
Afghan kids clothes
are almost the same as adults style or design. For boys, it's a chest piece embroidery Perhan Tunban with a golden stitch embroidery waistcoat and a golden or silver stitch embroidery hat. However, Perahan Tunban as well as t-shirts and pants are mostly worn inside the house or out side.
The Traditional girls clothing is the smaller size of women traditional clothing which is known as 'Lebassay Afghani' or Afghani Dress and comes with a small size head scarf and shoes. Currently the normal or informal kids clothing are jeans and t-shirts or cotton pants with shirts for boys and two piece knee length dress with trouser known as Panjabbi for girls.
The current Afghanistan clothing for men, as shown in the news, is a mix of all types different clothing, including some interesting blends of western and Afghan styles. For people who can’t afford to buy new costume made clothes, there is a second hand market called (Bazzar-e- Lilami) or second hand clothing market that sells clothes which comes from Western countries.
Here is how it works. These second hand clothing that people donate to Goodwills or other organizations make it to the third world countries and being sold by Kilograms. Basically after donation is made, clothes are gathered and packed by donation collecting organizations, then its being sold to other dealers who ships it to third world countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh etc.
For example when it reaches to Pakistan, they open and sort out the good ones and bad ones, checking packets and then re pack and resell it to Afghan dealers who sell it individually piece by piece. There are several shops specializing in different second hand goods such as shoes, men's clothes, women's clothing, and children. It is a really big business and due to the quality of the goods being better than the Chinese poor quality new products, they are being sold in a higher price but still some people prefer the second hand goods than the new ones in the market.
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