Afghan women hit back at Taliban with #DoNotTouchMyClothes campaign
Fletcher Alumna Lima Halima Ahmad and other Afghan women have started a viral online campaign to protest the Taliban's recent dress code for female students in Afghanistan. Using hashtags like #DoNotTouchMyClothes and #AfghanistanCulture, many are sharing pictures of their colourful traditional dresses to showcase a side of Afghan culture that is often unrepresented.
When asked about her participation in the viral campaign, Lima Halima Ahmad says that "[Afghan women] wear our culture with pride and we think that our identity cannot be defined by some terrorist group. Our culture is not dark, it's not black and white - it's colourful and there is beauty, there is art, there is artisanship and there is identity."
As someone who lived and worked in Afghanistan for the past 20 years, Ms Ahmad says: "Women had a choice. My mother wore a long and big veil and some women chose to wear smaller ones. Dress codes were not enforced on women.
"We are Afghan women and we have not seen stuff like that where you are fully covered, with some kind of black shadow uniform that you are wearing black gloves, your eyes are not even seen - it looked like it [was] ordered specifically for that exhibit," she said, referring to the pro-Taliban rally.