some sly marketing executive should start selling pakol hats worldwide. the market would be left-leaning neo-socialist anti-war university types, the too-hip-to-even-exist fashionably beautiful people, and anybody else who falls for marketing claptrap. available just in time for christmas, this hat would spark a shopping frenzy, a la the cabbage-patch kids (remember them?), and could even help the economy recover.

manufacturing would be a snap, since the facilities already exist in their country of origin. shipping might be a problem though...

20% of the proceeds would go to feed the afghan people.
-- mihali, Sep 26 2001

see the product here http://www.afghan-w...m/culture/clothing/
the picture at the top right [mihali, Sep 26 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Looks like it would go well with one of those Tibetan jumper/shirt things so popular with the crusties. Indeed, I'm sure I've seen a few of these about the streets (mind you, I do stay in the studenty / fashionable area of Glasgow), so I suspect this is getting golden in the oven even as we speak.
-- Guy Fox, Sep 26 2001


I like the lungee better. And I wonder about the authenticity of the link, given that the woman's entire face and at least some of her head are exposed.
-- beauxeault, Sep 26 2001


//the market would be left-leaning neo-socialist anti-war university types ... and anybody else who falls for marketing claptrap.//

I think the same gullible people that fall for 'marketing claptrap' will be the ones with fists clenched, crying for retribution, having read and believed all the right-leaning crap they see in the media. And with the typically simple views of the situation they have, I would hazard a guess that they have probably already made up their mind about which people to blame for the events of September 11 therefore which groups, (no matter how cool the culture,) to isolate and berate.

Nice hat though.
-- sdm, Sep 27 2001


Here's another market for the hat: caring non-Arab-Americans who are wearing Arabian headdresses in a show of unity with Americans of Middle Eastern descent (as if to say, "who're you gonna shoot now, ya dumb redneck?"). This really is happening.
-- beauxeault, Sep 27 2001


//And I wonder about the authenticity of the link, given that the woman's entire face and at least some of her head are exposed.//

As do I, the man on the top right doesn't have a beard at least a fist's length below the chin, grounds for punishment. Also, they are not praying at gunpoint.
-- AfroAssault, Sep 27 2001


you guys do realize that Afghani traditional dress would have originated before the rise of the Taliban, which was in the twentieth century? and with it the restrictive clothing and facial hair regulations... which have not always been and are not universally accepted even now.
-- adeps, May 29 2002


Very good. Let's co-opt a rich culture dating back further than our own and commercialise it until it becomes a cliche. Maybe Tibetian cloaks are the NEXT BIG THING, or, if you got some Native American head-dresses and...
-- thelumberjack, May 29 2002


I would love the irony that the popular Taliban clothing would help to restore the American economy...
-- RayfordSteele, Jun 21 2002


It's baked now. Look up "pakol" on Google, a bunch of online stores are selling them now.

I actually have a pakol myself, which my uncle purchased in northern Pakistan a couple of years ago. Until just now I had no idea that it had any political connotations--it's just a damn fine hat.
-- LeeshaJoy, Dec 11 2003



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