Designers work for months on collections that leggy, Amazon women will showcase on catwalks during international fashion weeks. But while most models have only one mission when walking down a runway (to not fall), women presenting collections in places like Kabul have other concerns, like fearing for their lives.

However, despite the dangers of presenting the latest and greatest, and all without a burqa, one group of Afghan women have looked fear in the face and realized fashion can be part self-expression and part activism.

Young Women for Change, an independent nonprofit organization based in Kabul, Afghanistan, recently put on their own fashion show, not at Lincoln Center or under the lights of Milan, but in a small, candlelit house.

Anita Haidary, cofounder of the group, says even though some attendees could not accept women showcasing the fashions, open events like her runway show are creating new activist platforms and discussions within the community about how women are seen.

Read the full article on TakePart.