About the significance of ankles

“You can tell if a girl's young or old, beautiful or ugly by the way she walks, by her shoes, her hands, and her ankles. Actually, everything you want to know about a girl can be seen in her ankles,” says Abdullah¹. This reminds me of a moment during calligraphy class: accidentally I look to the ground and I notice a strict-looking girl wearing black sexy hoses.
I walk along the quiet side-street. There are two females in burquas ahead me. They wear spacious pleated skirts and high heels (how they manage with those fashionable shoes on a frozen and bumpy road?). Slacks with lacy borders of are flashing under their skirts. Bare feet - while I am wearing warm winter boots - can be seen while they promenade. Ladies are young and desirable, because young guys they pass by are whistling.
Females in Afghanistan are usually hidden. An image of a naked woman can even cause the feeling of physical sickness.
I remember a strange situation that happened during the flight from Kabul to Herat. Stewardesses wore short skirts. It would be hard to wear more unsuitable clothes in the airplane full of Afghans. One stewardess asked in a sternly loud voice one Afghan men to apply his safety belt. This guy looked really irritated: improperly dressed woman is shouting at him. What an undignified situation!
Swedish girl Ester was my companion during our hamam-visit. After seeing so many naked women who seemed to feel quite relaxed, Ester asked me: “ Isn’t it so that western culture is sometimes weird? These female here veil themselves in public, but they feel quite comfortable being naked in hamam. Western ladies are almost naked in public, but they are afraid to be naked in a bathhouse…"
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¹Love and War in Afghanistan by Alex Klaits and Gulchin Gulmamadova-Klaits