More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Afghan women in Canada and around the world are posing in colourful traditional dresses online to hit back against the Taliban’s strict new clothing requirements for women in schools.
Based on their interpretation of sharia law, the Taliban has recently ordered all classrooms to be segregated based on gender, and mandated that all female students and teachers wear hijabs. On Saturday, photos on social media even showed a group of female students covered entirely in long black robes and waving Taliban flags in the government-run university in Kabul.
But many with Afghan heritage in Canada say their own traditional clothing looks nothing like that.
“That’s not who we are,” Neelo Mansuri, an Afghan-Canadian activist and law student in Toronto, said in a phone interview with CTVNews.ca.
“The people in the Taliban regime have taken religion and exported it into something that is completely despicable,” she said. “Afghanistan is a country of colour. Not this long, black, grim Dementor-like clothing, if I can make a Harry Potter reference.”
Mansuri is among thousands of Afghans who are sharing photos of themselves in vibrant, multi-coloured ceremonial clothing, using the hashtags #DoNotTouchMyClothes and #AfghanistanCulture.
While every tribe and region are unique, traditional attire is known for its intricate, hand-stitched embroidery; detailed headpieces; long pleated skirts; and fabric lined with bells, beads and tiny mirrors -- all of which stand out when people twirl in a traditional dance called the “attan.”
“Black shrouds do not represent Afghan culture,” Dr. Fatima Kakkar, who teaches pediatrics at the University of Montreal, said in an email to CTVNews.ca. She wore a lime green dress with an embroiled purple top in her tweeted photo.
“It’s important the world sees what traditional Afghan clothes really are. Their beauty, the workmanship, the vibrant colors represent the country and its heritage,” said Kakkar. “Every Afghan woman I know cherishes their traditional Afghan dress and wears it with pride. So it was important to reinforce that that visually.”
Mansuri explained that a lot of traditional clothing people in diaspora wear comes directly from female embroiderers in Afghanistan. She called the social media campaign a small but public way to “stand in solidarity” with the women facing oppression and growing restrictions in Afghanistan.
The online avalanche of photos began on Saturday when Bahar Jalali, a former history professor at the American University in Afghanistan, tweeted a photo of herself in a bright, green Afghan dress with flowers embroidered onto a red backdrop.
She posted it used the hashtag #AfghanistanCulture, and the next day, she used #DoNotTouchMyClothes for another photo of herself. “We will not let our culture to be appropriated by those who want to erase us,” she wrote.
In the days that followed, many Afghans, mostly women, followed her lead on Twitter and Instagram.
“This campaign reflects resilience, identity and defiance against an unelected, imposed rule,” Toronto-area based Afghan activist Mina Sharif told CTVNews.ca in an email.
“Clothes are not a priority in a country facing what Afghanistan is at the risk of experiencing, but they are a universal symbol of expression and we deserve to reflect our identity.”
Sharif was raised in Canada but started a girl's mentorship program in Afghanistan and worked with women-led radio stations from 2005 to 2019.
“I met strong powerful women urban and rural communities -- modestly, colourfully dressed women in a variety of culturally diverse designs,” she said. In the past 20 years, aspects of more ceremonial attire have ended up in light headscarves, jeans and everyday clothing of women going to work in offices or schools.
“We ask the world to remember we are a people who deserve to live on our own terms and speak for ourselves.”
“There’s an apparent ethnic and cultural cleansing that's taking place in Afghanistan right now,” Tahmina Aziz, an Victoria-based journalist and member of the Canadian Campaign for Afghan Peace (CCAP), told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.
“The beautiful, diverse tapestry that we had is disappearing day by day,” she said. “Afghanistan is known for its poetry, for its food, its sport, its art, and music… and we've seen these heartbreaking images of instruments being destroyed and woman being partially banned from sports.”
Aziz posted a photo of herself in a white and red embroidered dress to help bring attention to the work she and advocates have been doing for months.
She and CCAP have been pushing the Canadian government to broaden the special immigration program to help resettle more Afghans, provide more immediate humanitarian aid, and advocate for protecting the rights of women and ethnic and religious minorities.
In recent weeks, political science experts and Afghan families in Canada have also noted that many ethnic minorities, particularly Hazara Afghans and Sikh and Hindu populations, are at risk of persecution and even death if they remain in Afghanistan. Some have attempted to flee but many remain trapped in the country.
Although federal party leaders in Canada have made various pledges regarding Afghanistan, Mansuri hopes campaigns like #DoNotTouchMyClothes help keep Afghanistan top of mind well after the election.
“Afghan people today have made so many contributions to the social fabric of Canada, whether it be through education, work or otherwise,” she said.
“So it's not just a crisis for the Afghan people, but it's a crisis for everybody around the world.”
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”