A digital exhibition about a global icon
There are few garments that have become global icons and are recognized throughout the world. The Scottish kilt is one such icon, another is the Japanese kimono. Recently, the Afghan chadari, with its distinctive, all enveloping blue cape and face veil, has become such an icon.
For many in the non-Muslim world the chadari is regarded as a symbol of the oppression of women. This view that became even more widely voiced after the tragic events of 9/11. For others it is a romantic garment that wafts in the air as the wearer walks; a colourful, visual device used to great effect by the Iranian film maker, Mosen Makhmalbaf, in Kandahar (2001).
- Afghan chadaris and burqas
- The chadari and burqa: a brief history
- Colour coding
- Materials and construction
- Variations on a theme
- A controversial chadari
- Further reading and links
A "burqa bag," made for tourists to Afghanistan
(TRC collection)
This digital exhibition about the chadari is based upon the collection of Afghan garments, now in the TRC's collection, Leiden.
The text for this exhibition was written with the help of Miss Qudsia Zohab and Dr. Willem Vogelsang, Curator for Southwest Asia, Volkenkunde Museum, Leiden, The Netherlands.
The chadari/burqa is basically a combination of three garments, a small cap, a large cape that covers the body, and a face veil.
In Afghanistan this garment is known as a chadari (from the Persian word chador, meaning a tent), while in neighbouring Pakistan and northern India it is called a burqa.
There seems to be the idea that it only took on the Arab name, burqa, since the coming of the Taliban and that the use of the term burqa is a modern adaptation by the Western media. In reality the two names, chadari and burqa, have been used for this style of garment for a long time and burqa is probably the older of the two.
But why do women wear a chadari?
The chadari is basically an urban. It is rarely by nomadic women garment. In some places, wearing a chadari is seen as indicating a woman's (and thus her family's) respectability, honour and social status. In addition, these garments afford many women protection from dust and sand, and indeed, the prying eyes of men. It is basically a daily garment garment, which has been given a religious meaning by various groups over the centuries.
A significant change in the attitude to this garment came in the late 20th century when urban women were forced to wear them by the Taliban on the grounds that it was an Islamic requirement: a view that is not shared by all Afghans. The penalty inflicted by the Taliban on a woman who was not totally covered in a chadari ranged from a beating to death.
When talking about the chadari it soon becomes clear that many people in the West have the idea that it is a recent garment. Some even think that it was deliberately invented by the Taliban. It often comes as a surprise to learn that Muslim women in what is now Pakistan and northern India have being wearing this style of garment for over four hundred years. In addition, the closely related garment, the chadari, has been worn in Afghanistan for more than two hundred years. These garments were worn because of long-standing, local customs for women to be totally covered in public.
From the medieval period onwards such garments were primarily worn by urban, elite women. The amount of cloth and time needed to make and embellish the garments was not available to most nomadic or village women. These women wore simpler, outer garment called a chador, which was made out of a large rectangle of cloth. A chador could be pulled across the face if necessary, but it was not worn with a specific face veil. Even during the Taliban period not all Afghan women wore chadaris, as they were simply too expensive. These women simply continued to wear chadors.
The Burqa
The earliest depictions of women wearing burqa-like garments can be found in Indian Mughal miniature paintings dating back to the late sixteenth century. Three such women, for example, are depicted sitting in a boat in a manuscript painting dating to c. 1590. The manuscript is now in the British Museum (BM 1934.1-13.01(a)). Two of the women are totally covered by their burqas, while the third has hers tossed back over her head. A fourth woman in the boat, a servant woman, has no burqa, but her hair is covered by a large outer covering.
The burqas in this depiction are made up of a cap section with six to eight panels, a cap band in which the two eye holes are set, and then a cape section that is gathered at the top and set into the cap band. The front of the burqa appears to have a long slit.
When exactly the term burqa became actively used in the Mughal realm is unknown. But by the 18th and 19th centuries its use was widespread in northern India and what later became Pakistan.
The Chadari
At the beginning of the 19th century some Afghan women were wearing a chador with a separate face veil. Some veils were made of horse hair and called a peche, while others were of linen or cotton and known as a ru-band. The face veil was worn on the outside of the chador. They became larger and larger as the century progressed.
Contrary to many people's ideas, mid-blue is not the only colour used for Afghan chadaris. During the nineteenth century, for example, most urban women wore a white version of this garment. In 1903, however, white was banned by King Habibullah of Afghanistan (r. 1901-1919) and other colours were enforced. The king ordered that Muslim women should wear a khaki-coloured version, while Hindu women should wear a red or mustard yellow garment. Others should wear one that was slate coloured. The use of this form of colour coding ("Laws of Differentiation") in order to differ between various ethnic and religious groups, has a long tradition within the Islamic world.
In the late twentieth century the choice of colour began to say something about the origins and even the religious beliefs of the wearer. Burnt oranges and forest greens, for example, were fashionable around the city of Jalalabad, in the east of the country. Around Kabul mid-blue was more popular and this is the colour most people associate with the chadari. Yellow versions were worn by Hazara women in the centre of the country. In addition, some Hindu women were also forced to wear yellow by the Taliban. In the north of Afghanistan most women, especially the elderly, prefer white versions.
Black chadaris tended to be only used among very conservative and Taliban groups, notably in the Herat region. Immediately following the fall of the Taliban these were difficult to find. However, later they became more widely available as the Taliban regained some of their influence.
In 2006 it became fashionable for girls from Kabul to chose a grey-blue colour, while in northern Mazar-i Sharif white was still the most popular colour, with green being used in Kandahar and Khost in the south and east. Mid blue can be found in most provinces.
(photobank.unesco.org/library/image/406/13DD2V...)
The early examples of burqas and chadaris seem to have been made of cotton of varying qualities, or less frequently, silk. Cotton versions are still available and tend to be worn by poorer women. A feature of the chadari are the hundreds of narrow pleats in the main body of the garment. These pleats are not very popular because each time a cotton chadari is washed the pleats have to be re-made by hand.
The first synthetic chadaris appeared on the market in the late 1960s, and by the mid-1970s had become widespread. The appeal of this type of material is that it is easy to wash, comes in a range of colours and is relatively cheap. The pleats are steam-heated into the cloth and remain, even when washed. This saves considerable time and effort. Nowadays much of the material used to make these garments comes from China and South Korea.
The price of the material various considerably. A chadari, for example, in a cheap course material may cost c. 200 afghani (c. $4; 2007). While one in a light weight cloth with machine embroidery may cost in the region of 1400 afghani ($28; nearly a month's salary for some families). A chadari intended to be worn by a bride at her wedding may cost even more.
Construction
Nowadays, a burqa from Pakistan consists of a cap, a body cover or chador that incorporates an eye hole grid or two separate eye holes, and a separate panel lower down at the front. The cap, face veil section and panel are usually decorated with embroidery. This type of garment does not have the tight, pressed pleats of the Afghan version (see below). Instead, the 'pleats' or rather the gentle folds of the garment are made by gathering the excess material of the chador on a draw thread, and then sewing the material to the cap. The folds are created by working several rows of running stitches or by smocking the cloth, so creating a honeycomb effect
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The Afghan chadari consists of a cap, body covering and a separate face veil panel. In contrast to the (Pakistani) burqa described above, the panel with an eye grid is attached to the cap and there is no separate, inserted panel lower down. Around the upper part of the chador there are hundreds of narrow pleats that are gathered together and then sewn onto the cap. It is these pleats that give the garment it voluminous nature. The cap and panel are normally decorated with embroidery. This type of chadari has become a global icon and (in)famous throughout the world.
The eye grid
The eye grid in 19th and 20th century examples so far examined are always made from pulled thread work (the threads of the background material are pulled aside by the embroidery thread to create a hole). To date, there is no evidence that lace, crochet or some other form of embroidery was used.
Modern examples of chadari usually have a machine made form of drawn thread work, or (in very cheap examples), the holes of the grid are heat formed (the synthetic cloth is literally melted away).
