KABUL  (PAN):  Many people in Kabul are critical of the way in which women's clothes are sold from hand carts on the side of the road, saying they should be sold in shops and by female shop assistants.

In this bustling capital, market stalls are laden with women's T-shirts, underwear and other pieces of female attire. While women complain that buying clothes in public is embarrassing, doctors say it can lead to sexual angst and immoral behaviour among men.

Dyana, a ninth-grade student at Jamhoryat high school, said "It is difficult and embarrassing for most women and girls to buy their underwear in public, especially from and in front of men.

"I think it is better if such items are sold inside shops not outside."

She also said that customers should be able to try on clothes to see if they fit before they buy them, but in the bazaar, it was not possible to do this.

Masood, a 17-year-old boy selling caps, children's clothes and women's T-shirts from a hand cart in Kabul's main bazaar said, he sells clothes to women every day, but they are always in a burqa and do not want to be seen.

Rahila, a teacher at Zalikha high school in Kabul, said she felt shy when buying clothes in the market.

 She said she wanted such items to be sold in shops and for the shopkeepers to be women.

In Kabul, there is one women-only mall in Baghi Zananas. Farzana, a shopkeeper at the mall, said women could buy everything they needed from the stores.

"Most of our customers are adult girls and they can easily try on clothes before they buy."

But the mall has only 10 shops and many women complain that is too far from the city centre.

Psychiatrists in Afghanistan also say that selling women's intimate clothes in public could excite men to act in a way which was not in line with Afghan or Islamic culture.

Dr Azizudin Himat, head of psychologist's association, says that when they reach puberty, both boys and girls start to become attracted to the opposite sex.

When young men see women's clothes, especially more intimate pieces of clothing, they can't help but think of sex, he said.

In Afghan society, adults cannot satisfy their sexual needs without getting married, and so up until that time, they are stressed, and seeing intimate clothing only exacerbates that, he said.

To avoid these problems, clothes that could provoke these feelings should be kept out of the public eye, he said.

Sayed Sharif u-din Ansari, a religious affairs adviser to the Ministry of Women's Affairs, said that in Islam, women are respected and so their lawful demands should be met, including not selling clothes in public.

Also, Sharia law forbids men from seeing clothing that belongs to women other than their relatives, he said.

But he said that preventing women's clothes from being sold in public was not a task that the Ministry of Women's Affairs could do on its own. The ministry could raise the issue, but it would need cooperation from the ministries of commerce, interior, haj and Islamic affairs and the municipality.

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