Pashtun dress: shirts, turbans, caps and sandals

Dress and identity

Clothing in the Pashtun lands has long done more than keep people warm. In her survey of dress in Afghanistan, published in 1992, Nancy Hatch Dupree described traditional clothing as a way of expressing individual and group identity, social and economic status and stage of life, and noted that new garments are essential for family, religious and seasonal celebrations. Much of what follows draws on her account; practice varies from region to region and has changed over time. [1]

Change is part of the story. In Afghan cities Western styles spread from the early twentieth century, encouraged by government modernisation. Dupree also observed that Afghan refugees in Pakistan, both men and women, wore traditional garments as symbols of their adherence to Afghan culture and Islam. [1]

Shirt, trousers and waistcoat

The basic costume for men, women and children is a loose, long-sleeved shirt worn outside wide trousers gathered at the waist with a drawstring. Dupree gives the Pashto word partug (پرتوګ) for the trousers, alongside the Persian tanban, and peran or korta for the shirt. The outfit is widely known in English as perahan tunban or shalwar kameez. [1]

The man's shirt is typically collarless and buttoned at one shoulder, and its length varies by region from the knee to mid-calf or lower. Kandahar is known for finely embroidered shirt fronts. Many men wear a waistcoat, waskat (واسکټ), over the shirt. In Kandahar and among some Pashtun nomads these may be of black or red velvet with gold braid or embroidery, though Western-style waistcoats bought second-hand are also common. [1]

For cold weather there are sheepskin coats worn with the fleece inside, called postin, often embroidered and a speciality of the Pashtun area around Ghazni. Pashtuns in Paktia wear embroidered short-sleeved felt coats, and in winter men wrap themselves in a woollen shawl, patu (پټو). [1]

Turbans and caps

Headgear is, in Dupree's words, "the most diagnostic item of clothing". The turban, called patkay (پټکی) or pagri in Pashto, can be three to six metres long and is identified by the way its folds are arranged. White cotton is most common, though certain Pashtun groups prefer black, and silk turbans in muted greys, browns and pinks carry prestige. A boy marks his coming of manhood by ceremonially putting on a turban. [1]

Under the turban men wear a cap, kholay (خولۍ) in Pashto. Kandahar is famous for cylindrical caps embroidered with gold and silver thread and also produces foldable caps set with coloured glass beads. Conical caps of wheat straw are unique to the Shinwari of eastern Afghanistan. [1]

The pakol and its origins

The pakol (پکول), a soft woollen cap with a rolled brim, has a history that leads north-east, away from the Pashtun heartland. In 1880 John Biddulph wrote that "the rolled woollen cap" was commonly worn in Gilgit, Astor and much of the surrounding hill country, while men in Chitral then wore very small turbans. [2]

In the 1890s George Scott Robertson described the "soft roll-up Chitrali cap" as a favourite but scarce import among the people of Kafiristan, now Nuristan, obtainable mainly in the Bashgul valley next to Chitral. By the late twentieth century Dupree listed the flat-topped woollen cap with a rolled rim, generally called pakol, as headgear worn in Nuristan. How and when it spread more widely among Pashtuns is not well documented in the sources used here. [3] [1]

Sandals and the Peshawari chappal

Plastic shoes are common, but a sturdy leather sandal, chaplay (چپلۍ) in Pashto, is worn in many areas, often with a sole cut from old tyres. Straw sandals are found in Paktia. [1]

The best-known form in Pakistan is the Peshawari chappal, which Arab News describes as indigenous to the Pashtuns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is a hand-made leather sandal, and some Peshawar cobblers, such as Noor-ud-Din, who opened his workshop in the old Namak Mandi market in 1976, make double-soled pairs to order for well-known customers in Pakistan and abroad. [4]

Women's dress and the chador

Women's dress follows the same basic pattern of a long shirt or dress over full trousers, but the details matter a great deal: the length of the dress, the cut and fullness of the trousers, which can take up to 20 metres of cloth, the width of the sleeves and ankles, and the choice of prints and fabrics. Unlike men's clothes, which are usually tailored in the bazaar, most women's clothing is sewn at home. [1]

Most women cover the head with a large or small rectangular scarf, the chador, tsadar (څادر) in Pashto. Among some Pashtun tribeswomen the chador is an ankle-length mantle like a cape, bordered with heavy gold embroidery. The chadari, an all-enveloping garment with an embroidered grid over the eyes, is described by Dupree as primarily an urban garment. [1]

Embroidery, mirror-work and silver

Among the eastern Pashtun especially, the high-waisted bodices of women's dresses, the flared elbow-length cuffs and the deep hem borders, which may use as much as 12 metres of flowered cotton or velvet, are covered with fine embroidery. Wealthier nomads, the maldar, favour red, green and royal-purple velvet. Silver beads, discs, coins and amulets are sewn onto clothing, and among some nomads, the eastern Pashtun in particular, these are combined with mirror-work, gold and silver thread and beading. Embroidery has its own article on this site. [1]