Tailors in Herat provinces have protested outside the provincial Taliban governor’s office over the forced closure of tailors that cater to women.
The Taliban’s morality police on Wednesday ordered tailors to stop making women’s clothes or close their business, according to those protesting at the governor’s office.
Hamed Ebrahimi*, 28, said his tailor shop at Ferdawsi Market on Lilami Road in Herat city has been forced to close.
He said that the Taliban has slowly introduced stricter rules on tailors over a period of months. In the latest action, he and tailors who make women’s clothes have been told they are no longer permitted to operate.
“Since the first months of the Taliban’s rule in Herat, they set conditions for us that we work within. But by closing the shops, it is as if they are taking the bread from our table,” he said.
He says his business is worth $50,000 US dollars which he built up over the past 16 years since he was working as a child.
The tailors told Rukhshana Media that they had previously had a warning from the head of the Taliban’s vice and virtue department in Herat that women were not allowed to enter the tailor shops. The tailors were told that if they continued to allow women inside would be shut down.
Mr Ebrahimi said that some of the previous Taliban conditions that had been introduced included banning tailors from measuring women for clothes and having a changing room in the shop for women to try on clothes.
The Taliban also ordered the sofas inside the shops to be removed, Mr Ebrahimi said it with the aim of limiting the conversation time and to prevent women from sitting down. The Taliban also required the main table moved forward to a distance of 50 cm from the door to prevent women being inside the store.
The protesting tailors said that these latest Taliban orders have only fomented more problems for the tailors, especially in light of the widespread poverty in the country and the high rates of unemployment.
Some said they are considering leaving Afghanistan using the path of illegal immigration to Iran.
“Tailors have a weak economy, and they provide for their household expenses through tailoring. If their work is stopped, they will face severe economic problems and will not be able to support their families,” Mohammad Maruf*, 34, said, whose tailor shop is on Lilami Road in Herat city.
“Around one thousand tailors are busy working in Herat city,” Mr Maruf said. “But it takes years for tailors to work in a production and earn an average income.”
The tailors said the Taliban has suggested that female customers don’t need to come to the tailors, but rather the tailors can produce the clothes for the women’s clothes stores and women can buy them there.
Asiya*, 23, visited a tailor ar Ferdawsi Market to have her engagement dress custom made. She deposited 11,000 afghanis (USD$160) for the garment, but the Taliban has since forced the tailor shut.
She was devastated.
“I went to wedding dress rental shops, the dresses were not to my liking. Now I’ve paid for the cloth at an exorbitant price. But when I went to the tailor, he refused to make the dress.”
“How can men choose women’s clothing style? They cannot explain to the tailor what I want.”
The tailors said that in recent years, more female tailors had entered the market and their work was a good alternative to clothes imported from neighboring countries.
Now there are concerns that if tailors can no longer sew women’s clothes, the demand for buying and importing clothes from neighboring countries will increase.
“The effect [of the Taliban order] is completely detrimental to the people. If the activities of tailors stop, people will have to import clothes from abroad. Money goes out and a lot of money is spent,” Herat tailor Idris* said.
“In Kabul, women buy clothes from sellers; But in Herat city, women go to the tailor to get the latest dress models from the internet,” Idris said. “And the tailor sews their clothes with the same quality, elegance, cleanliness, and according to the customer’s wishes.
According to some shopkeepers, including retail embroiderers, bead sellers, bead embroiderers, and embroiderers, their work process is connected to women’s tailors or tailors sewing women’s clothes in the form of a chain, and if they are closed, their work will also decline.
