Hundreds of Afghan Women have taken to social media to protest against the Taliban’s dress code requirements for female students
Women are flooding social media with photos of themselves wearing colourful and traditional Afghan attire.
The online campaign is trending with hashtags like #DoNotTouchMyClothes and #AfghanistanCulture
The movement was started by Dr Bahar Jalali, who says she started the campaign because “one of my biggest concerns is Afghanistan’s identity and sovereignty is under attack”.
She urged other Afghan women to share theirs to show “the true face of Afghanistan” after posting a photo of her in a green dress
“I wanted to inform the world the attires that you’ve been seeing in the media [referring to those worn by women at the pro-Taliban rally] that’s not our culture, that’s not our identity,” she said.
Afghan traditional clothes for women include the sight of bright, colourful dresses – so what happened?
However, there is a common thread, with colour, mirrors and embroidery. Clothes that represent their identity.
“This is our Afghan authentic dress. Afghan women wear such colourful and modest attires. The black bursa has never been part of the Afghan culture,” tweeted Spozhmay Maseed, a rights activist based in Virginia.
Gorgeous @Peymasad Everyone, tweet your authentic Afghan attire. Let's show the world what the real Afghanistan is made of. https://t.co/Vq90lB9juL
Taliban officials confirmed that women will be able to study and work in accordance with sharia law and local cultural traditions, but they must follow strict dress codes
Some Afghan women have already started dressing more modestly.
Women have also transitioned to blue garment “chadari” with only a mesh rectangle in front of the eyes – with more women wearing this in Kabul and other cities.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified in Washington D.C. on Thursday.
The hours-long fiery hearing on Capitol Hill was incredibly tense as Chew was grilled by both Republicans and Democrats.
With bipartisan support, both parties are pushing for a nationwide ban on the app which the FBI has said threatens the national security of the United States.
TikTok says it has 150 million America users – almost half the country.
The CEO gave testimony to try and reassure lawmakers and Americans that TikTok is not an agent of the Chinese Communist Party, but critics aren’t convinced.
Chew was bombarded with questions from representatives from both sides of the aisle about the company’s ties to the CCP, security, data storage, well-being, and mental health.
Many lawmakers are growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of answers from the company.
Congress is now weighing a nationwide ban on the popular social media platform amid concerns that it is used to harvest Americans’ information and harm children online.
Protestors blocked a terminal at an airport and sat on train tracks
The ongoing nationwide protests in France over plans by the government to raise the retirement age by two years saw another day of disruption – events which President Emmanuel Macron has recently compared to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by Donald Trump supporters two years ago.
Protestors blocked a terminal at Paris’s Charles De Gaulle airport.
Protesters also sat on train tracks, and reportedly triggered a brief fire in the yard of a police station in once city.
Protests have been mostly peaceful, but tear gas has been used against them on occasions.
The plan is to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
For comparison, the U.S. is slowly raising its retirement age to 67 and the UK plans to go to 68.
Polls have long shown that a majority of voters in France oppose the move.
Macron earlier in the week said he was standing firm on the law and that it would come into effect by the end of the year.
The government says the change is needed to keep pension budgets from running a deficit – failure would create an annual deficit of about $14 billion by 2030.
The move prompted Republicans in Congress to interfere with the course of justice
Manhattan prosecutors say Donald Trump has misled people to expect he would be arrested, prompting Republicans in Congress to interfere with the course of justice.
A probe is currently under way into his alleged hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.