Football is everywhere. A bright orange burqa from Afghanistan in the TRC windowWe could not resist the temptation. With the world championship football in Brazil having just started and the Dutch team playing unexpectedly well, and the streets in Holland turning orange with flags, banners and whatever people can find, we at the TRC remembered the gift of an orange burqa from Afghanistan, in 2006.
At that time, early in the year, I had joined a Dutch military task force in northern Afghanistan. I talked with some of the soldiers, who had just ordered three bright orange burqas from the local tailor, not exactly a colour very popular with Afghan women. Why did you order them? "Well...., we will wear them when we are back in Holland this summer and when we watch the world championship football in Germany." I asked them to order one for me as well, which they apparently did, since a month later, back at the Museum in Leiden where I was then working, I received a parcel from the Dutch Ministry of Defence with three headachy-orange coloured burqas.
You will understand, when the Dutch team beat the Spanish in the opening match last Friday, the orange burqa of the TRC simply had to be brought forward again. You can see it right now in the shop window of the TRC. I do not know for how long; that depends on the next match of the Dutch team, against the Australians and then Chili. Life is full of surprises, and the ball is round, as my fellow-cloggie footballplayer/philosopher Johan Cruijff used to say.
Willem Vogelsang, 15 June 2014
