By themselves, none of the choices of what to wear means very much. But taken together and including other, less striking, options (many Kabul women dress like poor Russians, which means their faces are bare and the clothes recognizably "western") you can see that there is a shift in attitude taking place.
There will be great strides taken for womens' rights in Afghanistan in the next few years. Educated women from Kabul already know what equal rights look like, they know what they want - and what they need to struggle against. Women from rural areas, as well as from the more conservative cities (Kandahar and Jalalabad in particular) don't. They don't know what to expect, what opportunities will open up or what traditions will be lost.
Changes, of all sorts, on the streets of Kabul (and, as the capital, scenes from Kabul dominate the media and have a wide psychological impact across the country) will both be resisted and embraced. For every apparent step forward big enough to be noticed and reported, there will be a corresponding step back. In order to measure the true depth of change, we need to fall back on more subtle, but not less clear, indications. What people wear and what they expect to be able to wear is one such.
There will be great strides taken for womens' rights in Afghanistan in the next few years. And it will not seem like enough to us, steeped all our lives in the active presence of women, who have gone to school with, worked shoulder to shoulder with, have had conversations with and arguments with and made jokes with and held hands with and shared tears with girls and women every single day. It won't be enough (and will never be enough - not even for us - until certain things are so taken for granted that they are invisible), but it might just be enough for this year. And next year, another few steps. And the year after that.
The changes are happening, right now. Don't miss them because "it isn't enough".
Posted by Martial