United Afghan Club hosts benefit

The United Afghan Club hosted a fundraising benefit for International Orphan Care on Sunday night.

International Orphan Care is a charity dedicated to educating orphans in Afghanistan.

One of the highlights of the evening was a fashion show showcasing traditional Afghan dress. The dresses were made of velvet and silk in vivid color combinations such as red and gold. The final dress showcased was a floor-length silk dress in rainbow green, blue, pink and orange.

Women wore traditional long dresses with scarves and pants in the same fabric.

Male and female students used the stage as a runway while Tamana Badery, student and the host of the fashion show, provided background information on each article of clothing, such as when it is traditionally worn.

The event was held in Ackerman Grand Ballroom and more than 400 guests attended.

It included a dinner, musical performances, speeches, a raffle, a traditional dance and a showcase of Afghan fashions. Guests were seated around circular tables facing a stage while tables selling raffle tickets, Afghan CDs, DVDs and clothes adorned the edges of the room.

The fashion show was sponsored by AFG Classics, which is a company that sells traditional Afghan dress, said Ramzia Noorzai, a UCLA graduate and the sister of the founder of AFG Classics.

Mostafa Noorzai launched AFG Classics two years ago to provide a way for Afghans in the United States to keep in touch with their culture by wearing traditional dress, Ramzia Noorzai said.

AFG Classics sells traditional dress in styles from many different regions, including Kabul, Pashtun and Uzbek, Noorzai added.

All clothes for the fashion show were provided by AFG Classics, many of which were intricately detailed.

One woman’s dress was completely white with a small amount of blue embroidery and tiny mirrors on the front, and took three to four months to hand-stitch, Badery said.

The men wore their traditional dress of large vests and matching pants. Some wore kandahari hats, traditional hats often embroidered with patterns and mirrors, and chapans, long coats.

The men’s outfits were made of silk, velvet and other materials. They included less vivid color combinations than the women’s traditional outfits, such as pale blue and white, and featured less embroidery and detail.

The event was intended to bring attention to the socioeconomic situation in Afghanistan while showcasing the country’s cultural diversity at its best, said Salomon Hossein, president of the UCLA United Afghan Club.

The event hoped to raise money for International Orphan Care with donations from guests, said Mohib Hamidi, vice president of the club and third-year political science student.

While the benefit focused on Afghan culture, it also focused on Afghanistan’s past and current situation with poetry readings and a speech from keynote speaker Robert Abdul Hayy Darr.

The performance of the traditional Attan dance, with a small group of men moving in a circle, was another particularly interesting cultural display.

This dance evolved from a Pashtun victory dance and embodies the power of endurance of the Afghan people in the face of all they have had to endure, Homaira Hosseini, president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council and a member of the United Afghan Club said.