Thank you for your words of reason, Gabe and Leila. I’ve been wearing one of these for 10 years. It’s black and white (just my luck!) and I use it as a scarf, because it’s f-in’ cold in Chicago. Actually it was a Christmas present from one of my clients, who grew up in Afghanistan (not a terrorist, as far as I know). His mother (also probably not a terrorist) volunteers for an organization called Women to the World, and one year she travelled to Afghanistan and brought back with her many goods that had been made by the folks she helps.
Among these items were these big giant pieces of cloth that I thought, in tragic ignorance, were just really, really long scarves, handmade by impoverished women in war-torn Afghanistan. I might even say that I have been wearing it proudly as a sign of my support for those who are the true casualties of war… Also, I believe 10 years ago is long enough to say that it pre-dated the hipster adoption of the scarf. I had no idea I was making any kind of political statement whatsoever… but people do tend to see what they want to see, and I’m just telling what I see when I look at a big scarf.
“Women to the World, Inc. is a Christian service organizaion operating a School for Women in Kabul, Afghanistan and provides humanitarian aid and health care to women, children, and orphans and families in Afghanistan.”
