Source: scotsman.com

Models stride down a catwalk in the Afghan capital Kabul for the first time in decades this weekend as two designers demonstrate off their clothes behind the protected walls of a luxury hotel.

An audience of emigrant and well-heeled Afghan watched explain in hotel garden, under a clear mid-summer night's sky, to the strains of traditional Afghan music

All of the models presentation the conservatively cut clothes that incorporated designer burqas were expatriate women, to the distress of some in the audience.

The organizers said they did not want to court argument in what is a intensely conservative Muslim country by having Afghan models.

"We invited a lot of Afghan women to attend the show but not to be models," said Italian designer Gabriella Ghidoni, who organized the show with an Afghan partner.