Political Clothing in Afghanistan - Museum Volkenkunde

Political Clothing in Afghanistan 

Willem Vogelsang © 

National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden 

A chapan. RMV 5975-12 

Colophon 

Text: Willem Vogelsang © 

Editors: 

Photography: 

Paul L.F. van Dongen & Marlies Jansen 

Ben Grishaaver (museum objects) 

Other photographs: By the author, from various publications and from the ‘www’ 

Museum website: 

The Curator: 

www.rmv.nl 

Willem Vogelsang (e-mail: mailto:willemv@rmv.nl)

POLITICAL CLOTHING IN AFGHANISTAN. © WILLEM VOGELSANG 

Digital publications from the National Museum of Ethnology 

Table of contents 

Introduction 

I. The fine coat makes the fine gentleman 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

The Afghan patchwork 

A royal gift 

Macnaghten’s coat 

V. Paukul against turban 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

The Karzai-look 

The Chapan: show your hands 

Bibliography 

1



Introduction 

Welke kleding draagt een politiek leider om indruk te maken op zijn aanhangers of zijn tegenstanders? 

Of wat draagt hij – of zij – om juist boven de partijen te staan en voor iedereen een geaccepteerd 

gezagsdrager te zijn? 

In Afghanistan zijn deze vragen door de recente ontwikkelingen heel actueel. Eeuwenoude tradities 

blijken grote invloed te hebben op de kledingkeuzes van zowel de oude als de nieuwe machthebbers. 

Over wat zij droegen en dragen kunt u meer lezen in deze digitale publicatie, met voorbeelden uit de 

eigen collectie van het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde. 

2

I. The fine coat makes the fine gentleman 



We all know the image of Nelson Mandela. Even if we do not recall his face, we certainly 

know the colourful shirt he is always wearing. That garment has become the trademark of the 

South African leader. Is it pure coincidence that each morning he dons such a colourful shirt? 

That seems unlikely. Mandela knows very well what he is doing. Is it then his particular taste, 

or his liking for particular colour combinations, that makes him so easily recognisable each 

day? Perhaps, but in that case his sartorial taste is rather limited, and I do not think we should 

underestimate Mandela in this respect. There is far more on hand. 

Nelson Mandela with young fans. 

Mandela uses his shirt to show the world how he wants to be seen, namely as an African 

leader who does not belong to the Western-oriented clique of tie-wearing politicians from all 

over the world. He is different. Mandela wants to come across as someone he wants to be 

himself, someone who is ''normal'', close to the people. Someone who is always optimistic, 

happy and positive-minded. That image, of course, tallies very well with what Mandela is 

thinking and doing. But would you buy a second-hand bicycle from someone wearing such a 

shirt? Or would you expect your insurance agent to appear with such a garment? Or the 

chairman of the Board of Directors of a multinational? 

Clothing is a form of communication, but without words. With our clothing we indicate who we 

are, and especially how we want others to see us. From the other side we also judge people 

on the basis of what they are wearing. A nice, three-piece suit of pure wool inspires 

confidence in the wearer, but do we have any trust in someone wearing a shining nylon outfit? 

Politicians can use their clothing to distinguish themselves. With their clothing they can 

indicate what policy they stand for, and what kind of person they are, or want to be in the eyes 

of their potential followers. Have you ever looked closely at the clothing of Saddam Husayn of 

Iraq? When he was by himself, he often wore a military uniform, but when he was shown 

surrounded by his generals, he was usually the only one in the group who was not wearing a 

uniform. 

Sadam Husayn chairing his cabinet. 

3



Saddam Husayn wanted to show his military strength and manliness. But surrounded by his 

generals, who looked at him as though he was God himself, he showed, by not wearing a 

uniform, that he was even more important than the generals. 

Bush and Blair 

When George Bush is on the campaign trail, he often wears a red-coloured tie. Tony Blair in 

Britain does the same thing. Why? Because red is an aggressive colour, that shows selfconfidence 

and assertiveness. The Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, who attracted a wide 

following in 2001-2002 and who was later assassinated, liked to wear a three-piece grey suit 

with an enormous knot in his tie. He also liked to be photographed with a huge cigar in his 

hand. In his presentation he reminded people of Winston Churchill. Was this pure 

coincidence? Did Pim Fortuyn want to imitate the wartime British leader? 

Fortuyn and Churchill 

The reader will also remember the loincloth of Mahatma Gandhi. A beautiful symbol for the 

non-violent Indian opposition against British colonialism. And does the reader know that 

Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, regards his headcloth of such importance that it is 

deliberately sewn onto his green army-style jacket in the shape of Palestine? 

Yasser Arafat 

4



II. The Afghan patchwork 

Fine clothing makes a fine gentleman, also in Afghanistan. Specific clothing also makes the 

identity of an Afghan politician. Clothing has always played an important role in Afghanistan. 

There are more than fifty different ethnic groups in the country, each with their own identity, 

often with their own language, and in many cases also with their own clothing traditions. 

There are also various religious groups and specific regional characteristics. Afghanistan is a 

patchwork of ethnic groups that are led by a rudimentary central government. With his 

clothing the Afghan politician may show to which ethnic group he belongs, and with which 

religious community he wants to associate himself. In this way he can more easily attract his 

potential followers. With his clothing he may also show whether he wants to develop the 

central government, but in that case he is not likely to wear regional clothing, but garments 

that are accepted all over the country, or even regarded as being international. 

With his clothing the Afghan politician may show even more: he can indicate whether he is 

rich or poor, or whether he is in favour with the highest authorities, or whether he has good 

contacts with international powers, or indeed whether he has travelled abroad. 

For Afghan leaders clothing was and is a direct way to show their importance, their policies, 

and whether they regard themselves primarily as Afghan citizens or as representatives of a 

specific ethnic or religious group. The Afghan king Amanullah (1919-1929), who advocated a 

policy of drastic reforms, liked to have himself portrayed in a Western-style uniform, in order 

thus to show that he wanted to break with the traditional past. 

King Amanullah (1919-1929) 

5



III. A royal gift 

In the past, clothing in Afghanistan and beyond was not only a means to show the wearer’s 

identity. Clothing was also used as a gift in order to illustrate the special relationship between 

giver and receiver. In ancient Persia, some 2,500 years ago, subjects used to present their 

king with complete costumes: coats, trousers, boots, weapons, headgear, etc., and from 

stories we know that in his turn the king rewarded his loyal subjects with (even more) costly 

garments. 

From the more recent history of the Middle East we know the concept of the Khilat. That was 

a suit, or more specifically a coat that was given by the ruler to his subjects, to be worn as a 

symbol of their specific relationship as towards the ruler. To the receiver the coat was a way 

to show who he was: a favourite of the ruler, someone who could take an important place 

within his own community because he had access to the ruler. On the other hand, such a gift 

and the status that went with it also made the receiver some sort of middleman in the 

relationship between the ruler and his subjects. In other words, the wearer of the coat was 

bought by the king to become his representative. 

At the end of the nineteenth century there were many tailors in Kabul who were constantly at 

work sewing khilats, which the Amir of the land, Abdur Rakhman Khan, gave to his important 

subjects. The Amir also presented these garments to prominent religious leaders, since the 

latter wielded a great degree of power among the local population and in doing so the Amir 

wanted to make sure that they would continue to support him. It was the ancient way of 

buying the religious leaders. 

Portrait of Amir Abdur Rakhman Khan (r. 1880-1901) (Source: Spykes 1981) 

6



IV. Macnaghten’s coat 

Clothing as a status symbol and as a means to symbolise the relationship between politicians 

and followers is beautifully illustrated by a coat that for more than a century has been housed 

in the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden. According to the museum archives this 

garment was granted around AD 1840 by the Afghan king of that time, Shah Shuja, to the 

British official, William Hay Macnaghten. 

Macnaghten’s coat, RMV 3934-1. 

The gift of this coat was highy symbolic and confirmed the close relationship between the 

Afghan king and the British colonial officer, who had been appointed as “Envoy and Minister 

for the Government of India to the Court of Shah Shuja al-Mulk”. Macnaghten, however, was 

far more than an ambassador at the court of an oriental monarch. He represented British 

authority that in AD 1839, during the First Anglo-Afghan War and with a large army, had put 

the same Shah Shuja on the Kabul throne. In fact it was Macnaghten who ruled the country, 

rather than Shah Shuja. Yet the British tried all they could to convince the Afghans that they 

were there merely to support the new king, rather than profiling themselves as the de facto 

rulers. That would have only antagonised the Afghan people. The gift of the coat, therefore, 

symbolised the authority of Shah Shuja, which the British were very happy to accept, but 

which in reality hardly existed. 1 

Sir William Hay Macnaghten (1793-1841) left, and Shah Shudja al-Mulk' (1780-1842) right. (source: Caroe 1958) 

7



V. Paukul against turban 

Between 1978 and 1992, Afghanistan was ruled by a Marxist regime that could only remain in 

power with the massive assistance from the side of the former Soviet Union. During the time, 

the local resistance, the Mujahidin, started to wear a paukul, a cap with a rolled-up edge. 

A paukul (RMV 5975-2) 

All over the country this garment soon became the symbol of the mostly young resistance 

fighters of various origins who took up arms gainst the Red Army. 

Mudjahedin with paukul (1982) 

The paukul is originally a garment that was worn in the northeast of Afghanistan and the north 

of Pakistan. The exact history of this type of headgear remains unclear, but it is possible that 

it was already being worn by the time of Alexander the Great, who campaigned in this 

inhospitable part of the world around in c. 330 BC. In any case, between 1980 and 1990 it 

was being worn by resistance fighters as a symbol of their political and military position. It was 

also worn by the Pashtun from the south and east of the country, who are traditionally more 

inclined to wear a turban (lungi) on their heads. 

Pashtun-mudjahedin with turban (1982). 

8



In the 1990’s the situation changed when the Taliban took over control in Afghanistan. The 

Taliban (‘religious students’) were predominantly of Pashtun origin from the south of the 

country, especially from the area around the city of Kandahar. They fought against the 

influence of the Tajiks from the northeast of the country, who in 1992 had taken over control 

of the capital Kabul after the fall of the Marxist regime. This was one of the reasons why the 

Taliban deliberately opted to wear turbans, rather than the paukul. Eventually, the paukul was 

forbidden, and the turban was made obligatory. Between 1996, when the city was taken by 

the Taliban, and the winter of 2001/2 when the Taliban were driven out again, the paukul was 

not seen in Kabul. However, after the retreat of the religious students the men of Kabul not 

only shaved their beards, but many also threw off their turbans and donned a paukul. For a 

while, turban dealers in Kabul had nothing to do, while paukul traders could hardly keep up 

with the demand for the paukul caps. 

The paukul has now, by 2002, become the headgear of the rulers of post-Taliban 

Afghanistan. But many Afghans feel uneasy about the influence of the Tajiks in the present 

government of the country. In particular, the Pashtun tend to feel cheated and humiliated. In 

Kandahar, and in the rest of southern Afghanistan where most of the Pashtun live, very few 

men wear a paukul, and the turban is still dominant. 

Street scene from Kandahar (2002) 

9



VI. The Karzai-look 

At present, in December 2002, the paukul and lungi symbolise in Afghanistan the political 

situation. In general terms, the paukul goes with the winners, and the lungi with the defeated 

party. In Kabul the paukul dominates the streets, in Kandahar the lungi. In Kabul the Tajiks 

dominate, in Kandahar the Pashtun. But what to wear when you are a Pashtun and when you 

are elected as president of post-Taliban Afghanistan? That was the dilemma that confronted 

Hamid Karzai when early in December 2001 he was informed over the telephone that the 

Afghans and foreign diplomats meeting at that time in Germany had elected him as the leader 

of the interim government of the country. At that time Hamid Karzai was with his own tribal 

following, somewhere to the north of Kandahar, where he was trying to persuade his followers 

to take the last Taliban centre in Afghanistan, the city of Kandahar. 

Hamid Karzai, who for many years had lived outside of Afghanistan and was used to wearing 

Western clothing, was photographed in November 2001, somewhere north of Kandahar, in 

typical Pashtun dress: a shalwar kamiz (baggy trousers and loose shirt), a waistcoat (waskat), 

and a turban (lungi). With this outfit he wanted to show ‘his’ Pashtun that he was one of them. 

Hamid Karzai wearing characteristic Pashtun dress. 

Almost a day after his election as leader of the Afghan interim government, Hamid Karzai had 

completely changed his outfit. He no longer was photographed wearing the Pashtun dress, 

but he appeared in public wearing garments that attracted international attention, also from 

famous Western couturiers. The Karzai look was born. 

Hamid Karzai in his characteristic clothing. 

10



What is Hamid Karzai mostly wearing in public? In the first place, he neither wears a turban 

nor a paukul. The turban would have made him unacceptable to the Tajiks. It would have 

linked him to the Pashtun and the hated Taliban. But Karzai could not don a paukul either, for 

that would have antagonised the Pashtun who had dominated Afghan politics for such a long 

time. Karzai therefore opted for the so-called qarakuli, or Jinnah cap, as it is also called, after 

Mohammed Ali Jinnah (AD 1876-1948), the founding father of modern Pakistan. 

A qarakuli (RMV 5975-4) and a portrait of Mohammed Ali Jinnah 

The qarakuli is traditionally made of the fleece of Persian lamb (astrakhan), especially from 

among the Turkmen from northwestern Afghanistan and from the modern republic of 

Turkmenistan. The highest quality is golden brown in colour, and that is the type of qarakuli 

that Karzai prefers to wear. 

The qarakuli’s are worn in Afghanistan and beyond by the well-to-do people, who use this 

form of headgear to demonstrate their wealth and important position. The qarakuli is not 

bound to a specific ethnic or religious group in the country, and therefore eminently suitable 

for Karzai to wear. In this way he puts himself above the various ethnic groups of the country. 

11



VII: The Chapan: Show your hands 

However, there is another garment that is worn by Hamid Karzai since December 2001. That 

is the so-called chapan, a calf-length coat with long sleeves that is usually worn loosely over 

the shoulders. 

Karzai (centre) and others with the characteristic chapan, and a chapan from the museum collection (RMV 5975-12) 

This type of coat has a very long history in Afghanistan and the Middle East. The important 

aspect for Karzai was the fact that, although predominantly worn in northern Afghanistan, it is 

also known among the Pashtun and is worn by the rich and wealthy. There are beautiful prints 

from the early nineteenth century where Pashtun are depicted wearing chapan-style 

garments. 

Prints of Pashtun leaders with chapan-style coat (c. AD 1810). (Source: Elphinstone 1998) 

At the beginning of this account I referred to the idea of khilat and I also referred to ancient 

Persia. The subjects of the Persian king who presented garments to the king also sometimes 

gave a type of coat that very much resembles the chapan as worn by Hamid Karzai. The 

Persian garment was also worn loosely over the shoulders; and the sleeves were left hanging 

empty. The delegations who presented these garments all derived from the northern parts of 

the Persian empire, close to Central Asia. Here, in what is now often called Siberia, the origin 

of this coat should be sought. 

12



Persepolis, Apadana; Persian (left) and Median (right) dignitaries, turn of the 6th-5th c. BC. 

(Source: Gervers-Molnár 1973) 

From the middle of the second millennium BC there are many depictions of this type of coat. 

The ancient Greeks, in their stories about Iran and Central Asia, called it the kandys. They tell 

that it was normally worn with empty sleeves, but in the presence of the king the subjects had 

to put their arms into the sleeves, as a sign of respect, and obviously also to make sure they 

could not use their weapons. 

The famous Oxus Treasure, that at the end of the nineteenth century was found along the 

northern borders of Afghanistan and most of which has ended up in the British Museum in 

London, includes some beautiful depictions of men wearing the kandys. One of these is a 

man standing in a chariot. All these objects date back to the second half of the first millennium 

The kandys, or a coat of the same type, was also worn in China from the second half of the 

first millennium BC. It was regarded as the typical garment of the people from the steppes 

and deserts along China’s northern and western borders. All of this illustrates the origin of the 

kandys: the steppes of South Central Asia, from where in the early first millennium BC the 

horse-riding Scythians (or Sakas) brought it to Iran and Afghanistan. They introduced various 

innovations, including riding a horse, wearing trousers, the use of the composite bow, and the 

kandys / chapan. 

Depictions of a Scythians with a kandys. (Source: Gervers-Molnár 1973) 

13



The Central Asian origin of the coat with empty sleeves is also indicated by the Hungarians. 

This ethnic group migrated in the early Middle Ages from Central Asia to the valley of the 

Danube in eastern Europe, where they still live. They introduced various Central Asian 

traditions, including a coat with very long sleeves. The garment was later known among the 

Hungarians as the szür, but also as the szür-köntös. The latter name is also fund among the 

Ottoman Turks, who used the word kontos for a garment worn by Tartar leaders from north of 

the Black Sea. The Polish used the word kuntusz or kontusz for a similar long coat with empty 

sleeves. An interesting aspect of this, is the fact that all these words are similar to the word 

kandys used by the Greeks thousands of years earlier, and that the Greeks referred to the 

same type of coat with Central Asian origins. 

Depiction of a Hungarian szür. (Source: Gervers-Molnár 1973) 

The story does not stop here. The form of the Hungarian szür-köntös was also worn in The 

Netherlands, by the Huzars at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Huzars as a 

military regiment were found all over Europe from the sixteenth century onwards. The Huzar 

cavalry regiments wee established after the Hungarian Huzars, who for many centuries 

successfully resisted the Ottoman Turks. The Hungarian Huzars wore their traditional coats 

with empty sleeves, and the same type of coat was adopted by the other European Huzar 

regiments. The Dutch Huzars who fought at the Battle of Waterloo in AD 1815 are depicted 

wearing elaborate coats with empty sleeves slung across their shoulders, almost in the same 

way as Hamid Karzai proudly presents himself nowadays to the world. 

Pewter soldier, dressed like a early nineteenth century Dutch Huzar. 

14



VIII: Bibliography 

Caroe, Olaf, 

The Pathans, 550 B.C. - A.D. 1957. London 1958. 

Dupree, L., Afghanistan. Princeton 1973 (revised edition: 1980) 

Elphinstone, Mountstuart, 

An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India, 

comprising a view of the Afghaun Nation, and a history of the Dooraunee Monarchy. London 

1815 (reprint 1998) 

Gervers-Molnár, Veronika, The Hungarian Szür. An Archaic Mantle of Eurasian Origin. 

Toronto 1973 

Martin, Frank A., Under the Absolute Amir of Afghanistan. London and New York 1907 

Spykes, Percy, 

A History of Afghanistan. New Delhi 1981 

Vogelsang, Willem, The Afghans. Oxford 2002 

Notes 

1 Shah Shuja’s authority was very limited indeed. That was made very clear soon after the gift of the coat. In AD 1841 

there were various local revolts against Shah Shuja and his British troops. In December 1841 the British had to watch 

how one of their leaders, Alexander Burnes, was killed in Kabul by an angry mob, while neither Shah Shuja nor the 

British army could do anything about it. On 23 December of the same year, Macnaghten tried to conclude a treaty 

with the Afghans that stipulated that the British would leave the country. However, the Afghans suspected foul play 

and during the meeting along the banks of the Kabul river Macnaghten was killed. According to the stories his body 

was subsequently hung in the Kabul bazaar. 

On 6 January 1842 the remaining British troops were forced to withdraw from Kabul. They tried to reach the British 

garrison in Jalalabad, some 150 km further to the east. Weakened by cold and hunger and on all sides attacked by 

the Afghans, the British army left the Kabul cantonment. They were badly led by their commanders, and Shah Shuja 

was not in any position to offer help. They started their retreat with some 16,500 people. Only one British officer 

managed to reach Jalalabad. The others were either killed or taken prisoner. Soon after Shah Shuja was killed by his 

own “subjects”. 

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Political Clothing in Afghanistan - Museum Volkenkunde

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