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The last few weeks we have been writing about the clothing of the Taliban leaders and how they want Afghan women to dress; dress is everything, and the TRC in Leiden has been studying dress in all its aspects for many years. Dress is, as stated in the title of this blog, a statement of who you are or want to be.

Well well, yesterday I saw three of our leading politicians coming together to discuss the formation of a government, some six months after the last elections. Some urgency is advisable, one would say. And what did I see? I saw our acting Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a kind of 'casual' outfit that he probably regards as suitable for a Saturday afternoon; I saw our former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sigrid Kaag, in an outfit that she probably wears when gardening; and then Wopke Hoekstra, the political leader of the Christian Democrats and acting Minister of Finance, wearing a T-shirt that, and I am being charitable, does not really suit him. 

From left to right: Wopke Hoekstra, Sigrid Kaag and Mark Rutte in fantasy casual clothing. Dutch politics in its sartorial glory Copyright ANP.

So how do these outfits make the statement who they are and who they want to be? I suspect that the three discussed their clothing at length on Friday night. "Do we put on our normal everyday wear, or shall we try something different?" The result is clear. The message is "We are all buddies". We can only hope that their discussions were more fruitful than their combined sense of dress. Anyhow, politics are often compared to a theatre, and there you are!

Willem Vogelsang, 19 September 2021

All archaeological textiles fascinate me, but there is one group that I find particularly interesting: old Coptic textiles. The embroidered images on these textiles seem so joyful to me, so full of love for life: dancing people, cherubs, early Christian symbols, fertile plants, gods and goddesses (including Bacchus, the god of wine and ecstasy). The human images usually have big eyes, and are chubby and always look a little lopsided to me. I think this indicates a fine disdain for perfectionism, despite the fact that the weavers, spinners and embroiderers involved were eminently skilful and accomplished. I also like the fact that these images represented a highly multicultural society, reflecting Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and other influences from international trade.

Fragment of a Coptic textile with an embroidered design of a clavus and a pendant, probably from a child's tunic. 6th-8th c. (TRC 2011.0460).

The last few weeks we published various blogs about the garments worn by Taliban men and about the dress that they 'suggest' Afghan women to wear. As for the latter, we noted that the niqab and abaya, now promoted by the Taliban as 'Islamically correct', is Arabic in origin and distincty different from the traditional, all-enveloping burqa that was enforced by the Taliban leaders upon Afghan women in the 1990s.

We indicated that the niqab and abaya set was introduced in Peshawar and other parts in the Pashtun-dominated Afghan-Pakistan borderlands in the 1980s when many Arabs flocked to the area to help the Afghan Mujahedin against the then communist regime in Kabul and their Soviet backers. One of them was Osama bin Laden.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (left), and Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani (right). Photograph: The Times.

Among the items in the TRC Collection there are a range of handbags and purses, as well as a couple of what are called miser’s purses and yesterday we were given seven more. But what exactly is a miser’s purse?

Basically it is made up of a long, flexible tube with two rings. Apart from miser's purse, this accessory has various names including ring purse, string purse, long purse, and finger purse. In the Netherlands it was known as a kousenbeurs ('socks' purse'), and in France as a bourse aumônière. It was fashionable in many Western countries for both men and women from the latter half of the 18th to the early 20th century. They were sometimes hung over a belt, on other occasions stored in pockets or within other bags.

Joshua Reynolds: 'Mercury as cut purse', AD 1774. A boy, representing Mercury, is holding a miser's purse in his left hand. Courtesy Faringdon Collection Trust.

Following our earlier blog about the Taliban in Afghanistan going global, here a photograph of students in Kabul wearing Middle Eastern hijab; a long way from the traditional all-enveloping Afghani and Pakistani one-piece chadari or burqa enforced by the Taliban when they were in power between 1996 and 2001.

Have a good look at the photograph: all of the women wear the Saudi-style abaya and niqab, rather than the burqa with its mesh-like mask in front of the eyes, which became iconic for Taliban controlled Afghanistan in the 1990s.

As discussed earlier, in this instance the three-piece 'black burqa' takes precedence over the traditional one-piece 'blue burqa'. It may be no coincidence that the mother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting Taliban Minister for the Interior, originates from the Persian Gulf.

The photograph was taken last Saturday,

Gillian and Willem Vogelsang

Afghan female students in Kabul, Saturday 11 September 2021, with Takiban flags. The women are wearing Saudi-style abaya and niqab, as propagated by the new Taliban rulers (QURESHI AFP).

A friend of the TRC Leiden, Ann Cable, came to the Hogewoerd a few days ago with some donations for the TRC Collection, including African textiles and garments that belonged to her parents – her father was a senior British diplomat who served in different countries.

A mokorotio straw hat (1970s, Lesotho (TRC 2021.2623).

The last few days there have been reports in the international press about the Taliban encouraging women in Afghanistan to wear, when in public, an abaya and a niqab, rather than the all-covering burqa which they imposed upon women when they were in power before, between 1994 and 2001. Well, that has certainly got some interesting implications!

Group of Afghan women wearing their 'blue burqa.' Photograph by A. Majeed, AFP.

Participants of the August TRC Intensive Textile Course. Gillian Vogelsang stands to the left. Photograph: Evelyn ValenciaEvery piece of garment holds a wealth of stories. What is the story behind what you are wearing? After attending the Intensive Textile Course at the TRC, I see my wardrobe, accessories, spools of threads, and visits to museums in a completely different way. I definitely appreciate the clothes I have a lot more.

Education and research aside, if anyone is serious about downsizing their wardrobe or to stop buying unnecessary garments, this workshop is also a great bootcamp for you. Side effect warning: you may get a compulsion to spin anything that looks like they can be spun into yarn. Keep away from your neighbours’ furry friends.