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Taliban costumes
Ex-British soldiers blast Edinburgh company for ‘sick design’
AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: Former British soldiers criticized the Edinburgh company for designing a Taliban ‘terrorist costumes’ peddled by Morph Costumes online for £28.29.
According to Daily Mirror, the United Kingdom National Defense Association has branded the costumes as a ‘vile insult’ to those sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan. The ‘sick design’ has angered the former soldiers and support groups for veterans in Britain.
“If it’s a joke, it’s a sick joke and one which all decent people will rightly condemn. We call on fancy-dress shops to refuse to sell or hire out these Taliban costumes, and we call on the public to boycott any retailers who continue selling them,” Daily Mirror quoted Chief executive officer Andy Smith as saying.
Captain (retd) Doug Beattie, who won the Military Cross in 2006 for bravery while serving in Afghanistan, told the Daily Record: “It’s in extremely bad taste in two ways. It’s in bad taste for the families of loved ones lost in Afghanistan and in acts of terrorism like the recent events in France. It’s also in bad taste by portraying a Muslim in that way. I would say to people don’t buy the thing because it’s sick and particularly stupid. It creates hurt across the board.”
Morph Costumes, founded in 2009 by brothers Ali and Fraser Smeaton and their flatmate Gregor Lawson, claimed that the costumes is ideal get-up for those people who are brave and like to take a risk. The firm says that the outfit comes with a “shirt, waistcoat, hat and bomb belt”.
The outfit also angered Afghans. Social media users said that the firm is insulting culture of Afghans. They asked the Afghan government to take the issue at diplomatic level.
