Amazon Draws Flak for Selling ‘Afghani Burqas’ Online

One of the biggest online retailers, Amazon, has come under fire from social media users for selling Afghani burqas.

Afghani burqas, also known as chadari, are currently being sold online on Amazon for an average price of $99.00. It is a full-body outfit with an opening for the eyes alone that resembles a fence.

#Chadari or Afghani burqa made way to @amazon with a strange promotional message of “every women must be covered fully including their eyes”. Hijab was announced compulsory in 🇦🇫. But, the ? is does @amazon promote it for the western women as there is no @amazon in #Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/DtNcm1P7II
— Khushnood Nabizada (@KhushNabizada) January 24, 2023

‘EVERY LADY MUST HAVE All Covering, Even The Eyes,’ says the web advertisement on Amazon.

Because there is no Amazon in Afghanistan, social media users’ opinions ranged from doubting whether it was real to wondering if it was being marketed to Western customers.

Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, has been tagged by Lynne O’Donnel, a journalist who writes for Foreign Policy, asking him if he truly was making money from selling chadari. The product has reportedly been available on Amazon for months, but social media activists and journalists have just recently become aware of it, according to the chronology of social media posts.

.@JeffBezos — You're really making money from the forced sequestering of women in #Afghanistan? Just $100 to ensure a woman's identity is eradicated beneath a vile petro-chemical shroud? C'mon @Amazon, is this for real? https://t.co/MFpr5grsvQ
— Lynne O'Donnell (@lynnekodonnell) January 24, 2023

Ever since Taliban-led de facto government took over, Afghan women have strict orders to wear the burqas. The Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice of Afghanistan imposed and oversaw the order. In order to explain their ban on girls attending schools and universities, the Taliban misused laws of Islamic Sharia.