Burqa losing favor as Afghan women opt for chador

By Golnar Motevalli

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Nehmatullah Yusefy's burqa sales have dropped 50 percent since the Taliban were toppled in 2001 and he says he will soon need to start stocking other styles of Islamic dress to make up for lost profits.

Yusefy has sold the powder blue garb, which covers women from head to foot, for the past ten years. It was mandatory attire for women during the austere rule of the Islamist Taliban.

But he has done so reluctantly.

"I think, God willing, the sales of burqas will decrease, then I will sell chador namaz and even maybe mantau chalvar," Yusefy said, standing behind the counter of his small outlet on a strip of burqa shops in the main market of Herat city.

The chador namaz is a long, billowing dress in black or somber-patterned fabric which is widely worn in Iran. It exposes the woman's face but covers the rest of her head and body until her ankles.

Mantau chalvar is a long coat worn over trousers and it is popular with women in the capital Kabul, who are comparatively more free to dress as they choose. It is always worn with a scarf covering the head that is tied firmly under the chin.

Last week French President Nicholas Sarkozy condemned the burqa, saying it was not welcome in France because it was a symbol of subjugation of women.

"We cannot accept that some women in our country are prisoners behind a grille, cut off from social life, deprived of their identity," he said amid calls by some lawmakers to ban the burqa in France.

The chador namaz, which is open at the face, with its edges loosely hanging down the center of the body, may be more welcome on the boulevards of Paris.

"I hope, God willing, that things in Afghanistan will progress more, that people will be more open-minded and more sensible, so that a woman, a sister, a mother, can go about the market freely," Yusefy said, adding that he has never demanded that his own wife and two daughters wear the burqa.

Yusefy, who sells between five and 15 burqas a day, plans to eventually branch out to the increasingly popular chador namaz, which exposes the face. He hopes to double his clientele and sales by catering to this growing market.

The chador namaz is worn by about half of Herat's women.

While no one in Kabul would bat an eyelid at the sight of mantau chalvar, in Herat it still turn heads. For many, even the chador namaz is seen as pushing the envelope.

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