#pakol

Kafeel, Khost Province - Oriane Zerah

I am doing this small educational segment because i’ve recently gotten a misconception of mine corrected. Especially with regards to the Pakol hat. The Pakol hat is worn a lot in Pakistan regardless of ethnicity but mostly by Pashtuns and Gilgit-Baltistanis, but i always had this misconception that this was something that we’ve inherited from the Pashtuns (or more specifically, Afghanistan). Turns out that i was wrong, and that in actuality it was the other way around.

The Pakol: Popularly known as the Chitrali cap, is a soft round-topped men's hat, typically of wool and found in any of a variety of earthy colors: brown, black, grey, ivory or dyed red using walnut. Pakol is a Khowar Chitrali word and is derived from the word Khoi which means hat in Khowar. The original Khowar name for the hat is Khapol. This hat has many variants, worn all over Pakistan and has also been adopted into the culture of Afghans fairly recently. Chitral today is also the mass producer of these hats as well as the origin of the Pakol. Chitralis despite being located in KPK, aren’t Pashtuns (though they exist there too). They are Dardic people.

The Pashteen Hat: (Also called) Mazari Hat is a red-and-black-patterned hat originating from the Mazar-i-Sharif city of Afghanistan. It’s worn by Afghan Hazaras, Uzbeks, Turkmens etc etc too. (Hence i think this hat will best suit Afghanistan than the Pakol which i think is also popular in Afghanistan but more among the Pashtuns and Nuristanis, It depends on my mood though. I may switch between the two hats for Afghanistan like i often do with Pakistan)

“Hm? I wear glasses while doing paper work. But it’s alright, my eyesight isn’t that weak.”