Faceless mannequins display clothes in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan’s capital, store windows display stunning ball gowns and three-piece wedding suits – with each mannequin’s face covered.

The morality police have asked stores to hide the faces of mannequins and photographs of models, according to a Kabul clothing seller.

“It makes the screen a little ugly,” said the 22-year-old, but “it doesn’t affect sales.”

When the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, they imposed their austere interpretation of Islamic law, including a decree against the depiction of human faces.

“The environment must be Islamic,” said the seller in Kabul, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

Women’s evening dresses come in bright colors, with some styles leaving the shoulders exposed or with plunging necklines – almost all sparkling with sequins.

Dresses are purchased to be worn only in private settings, at gender-segregated weddings or engagement parties.

The heads of the mannequins sporting each dress are wrapped in plastic, aluminum foil or black bags.

“Later, they may order the arms to also be covered in plastic,” predicted the seller.

Other stores feature traditional Afghan wedding dresses with full skirts and intricate embroidery.

The Taliban government has told women to cover themselves completely in public.

Women running errands in Kabul’s commercial district were seen wearing abaya robes and covering their faces with a medical mask.

– ‘We turn around’ –

After a ban on the depiction of human faces was introduced in January 2022, religious police in Herat decapitated mannequins by cutting off and tearing off their heads.

The rule is now enforced across the country by teams from the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Dressed in long white coats, they visit Kabul’s shops several times a week.

In a multi-story shopping center in Kabul, mannequins’ heads are now mostly covered in plastic bags or wrapped in aluminum foil.

“In some areas, ‘Vice and Virtue’ visits on certain days, so (shopkeepers) cover and then uncover the faces of the mannequins,” said Popalzai, a shopkeeper who uses a pseudonym.

“But here there are between three and six guys who come two or three times a week. They check from a distance, they are much softer than before”, added the shopkeeper, who lived through the first reign of the Taliban government between 1996 and 2001.

At the entrance to his store, male mannequins in Western clothing such as jeans or three-piece suits – discouraged by Taliban authorities – are all hooded. One of them is wearing sunglasses.

Customers and vendors seemed unfazed by the mysterious, headless figures.

“There are more serious problems,” said another shopkeeper, referring to the difficult economic climate and restrictions on women’s education and work.

“This is not very important to the Afghan people,” he said.

“We’re content with that.”

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