It wasn't the crazy traffic in Pashawar that was a new experience for me, nor the attention we recieved in the streets, I'm used to all that. I'm fine with animal parts in the market and surprisingly the guns didn't bother me as much as I thought they would. It was the burka that knocked me off balance. Of course I've seen them on TV, but to see women in the street all covered in the same way had a different effect on me.

We arrived after sunset and there were few women on the street. The ones I did see were completely veiled and most wore a burka.

Now, I am in full support of the head scarf. The air quality here is terrible and I like to keep my hair clean for as long as possible. My skin and lungs suffer too and I often cover my nose and mouth when walking in the street. It disgusts me to feel grains of dust between my teeth as a truck/bus/car drives by coughing out black smoke. But the burka removes the possibility of self expression and a woman's identity.

Spending a week in Peshawar opened my eyes to the importance of family to the Pashtuns and the role it plays in their community. I had to look at things from another angle.

Rather than getting dressed to go out and looking their best for all the strangers on the street, the women here would rather hide themselves. The beautiful material for clothes in the markets tells of what women wear at home and which their family and close friend are honoured to see. Family comes first and the opinions of the rest of the world are of no importance.

Kabul is a different story. Many people wear modern clothes and express a little of their individuality. The burka is common but women also wear skirts, tailored jackets and patterened scarves. The difference may be in the ones who work and the ones who don't, or possibly the schooled and unschooled women. The impression of the well-dressed people is that they are confident, successful and productive in whatever they do, both at home and as part of the community.

The burka, a simple piece of cloth, has as many connotations as reasons for its existance. There are many books, articles etc about it, and this is only a blog, I don't want to be writing for a week. My personal experience questioned my own identity. What do I want to world to think of me when I walk out to face it, or when I don a hat and sunglasses trying to hide from the world.