The Burqa in Vogue: Fashioning Afghanistan

In the months leading up to 9/11 and in its immediate aftermath, the media demonized the burqa as “Afghanistan’s veil of terror,” a tool of extremists and the epitome of political and sexual repression. Around the time of Afghanistan’s presidential and parliamentary elections in 2004 and 2005, there were noticeable shifts in apprehensions of the burqa in the Western media. In Fall 2006, burqa images even appeared on the Paris runways and in Vogue fashion spreads. This article charts the burqa’s evolution from “shock to chic” and the process of its commodification in the Western media. The article specifically analyzes Vogue magazine’s appropriation of the burqa as haute couture.