Afghan Singer Burns Dress ‘So We Can Start Focusing on Bigger Problems’

Published May 27th, 2017 - 05:00 GMT
Aryana Sayeed burns a skin-colored dress in a viral video (Facebook)
Aryana Sayeed burns a skin-colored dress in a viral video (Facebook)

An Afghan singer publicly burned a dress after members of the public in the country criticized her for wearing it during a recent Paris concert.

Aryana Sayeed, also a judge on Afghanistan’s version of The Voice talent show, uploaded a video of her burning the skin-colored dress to Facebook on Wednesday, telling her more than 1.6 million followers: “If you think that the only problem in Afghanistan is this dress, I will set this on fire today because of you.”

The jewel-encrusted dress was worn during a May 13 concert and caused uproar in her native Afghanistan.

She captioned the post: “Today we resolve one of the biggest current problems of Afghanistan so we can start focusing on other bigger problems.

“It should be noted that the reason for this action of mine is not the pressure of those who still live in dark ages but to raise further awareness in regards to important issues within our society.”

Some users continued to express anger.

“We Muslims know that nakedness of a woman is prohibited ... and this is a mistake. Alas to us!” one Facebook user said.

However, some came to her defense.

“She should have burnt the dirty mouth of the people who unfairly criticized her. Burning the dress was not good work.”

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