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By Walid Garboni
Baloch women living in eastern Balochistan, western Balochistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East have been wearing the traditional Balochi pashk, shalwaar and sarig/gushan for hundreds of years. Baloch women living in Europe, Americas and Africa also proudly wear their traditional dress.
The jaamag, pashk/gown is ornamented with a profusion of needle-work of various matching colours. The pashk has a large front pocket, pandoul, which is also embroidered. The length of the pashk various, but normally it is down to the knees or lower. Different names (kapnaal, paliwaar, etc) are given to different designs of needled-work or embroidery. Regardless of the name, colour or design of the needle-work the pattern of the gown remains the same.
Shalwars/ trousers are very loose with embroideries over the hem. The gusaan worn to cover the head, neck and chest; is also embroidered with matching colours as the gown.
Virgin and widows usually wear black, white or simpler jaamag with less needle-work or simply patched with flowered ribbon, while a married women uses various colours, the favourite being red. The married old women sometimes use black jaamag without embroidery. If a widow uses embroidery, it is a clear indication that she intends to re-marry.
Along with beautifully flowered dress, trouser and head scarf Baloch women also wear unique jewellery designs like durr (earrings), haar or touk (necklace), mondrik (rings in hands and foot fingers), sanga or taal (rings around hands), bahoband or bahink (armlets).
Balochi dress and modernisation:
As time goes improvements come in any culture. The westerns wearing shirts/tea-shirts, trousers/skirts or dresses have not been able to bring any basic change to their fundamental pattern. The lengths varies, collars, sleeves changed or modernised, hems widened or narrowed from time to time, but fundamentally they stayed the same. Same way Indian saris or Pakistani kumis shalwaar and dupattas or dhotis have not changed only few changes occurred from time to time and then reversed, but basic designs are still the same.
Baloch have also improved their various fashions, but the trade marks remain unique and anywhere a Baloch woman in her dress recognised easily and it shows her a separate identity. This sense of identity make the Balochi dress very important and peerless for the Baloch as well as attracted many none Baloch women in Pakistan, Iran and the Middle East who wear it to enhance their visible personality.
Economical Significance:
Balochi dresses have a very profitable market around the Baloch populated areas.
In Karachi where the largest numbers of the Baloch live together, Balochi dress has a market of millions of rupees. Many non Baloch have been earning their bread on making Balochi dresses; needle-worked or embroidered. Equally in the western Balochistan many Afghan refugees make Balochi dresses to earn their livings; some of whom have become rich on this.
Lately Baloch women have shifted towards the older fashions and prefer needle-worked dresses from the machine embroidered. This shift has worked in Balochâ?Ts good deed because it is Baloch women who are the experts in this category. Now many Baloch women -all over- are the main bread winner in poor families when before they had no contributions towards family earnings. They make as much as 10,000 rupees a month and yet sitting home in their privacy and carrying out other household duties alongside.
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