By Nour Makarem | Staff Writer
“Feminism,” reads the text of a top included in Zara’s latest collection – a perplexing irony when one considers the fashion giant’s rather heavy record of human rights violations exhibited at its garment factories, meeting the conditions of what is referred to as ‘sweatshops,’ where employees work unreasonably long hours in inhumane conditions for extremely low, unlivable wages, that disproportionately affect women; 80% of factory workers are women ages 18 to 24, who make less than $3 a day.
Fast fashion – often defined as the mass production of ‘trendy’ clothing sold at an affordable price and faster-than-lightning speed to satisfy consumer demand – is a practice we’ve all become rather accustomed to, not giving too much thought to the reality behind each piece. If you’ve been alive for the past 20 years, chances are you most likely have engaged in the practice by shopping at giants, such as H&M or Zara, to participate in current fashions.
While convenient, the ugly truth is that these companies choose manufacturers with little care for their workers’ well-being that are able to provide mass scale production for an extremely low price within schedule, at the expense of proper working conditions.
Employees are regularly put to work 14 to 16 hours shifts seven days a week, officially arranged to earn a minimum of $33 per month, though in reality salaries do not exceed $17-$20. In fact, many are not paid at all. Per a report from April 2020, only 14.8% of garment workers in Bangladesh received full payment, while many more are at risk of homelessness. Additionally, these factories are cramped spaces that do not typically meet safety conditions, regularly exposing workers to toxic chemicals and inhumanely high temperatures, creating an environment where physical altercations are frequent.
In April of 2013, the world was shocked to hear of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh, which held five garment factory sweatshops and resulted in 1,132 deaths and over 2,500 injuries. Months prior, Tazreen Fashions garment factory had caught fire and claimed the lives of more than 112 workers in a nearby area.
Though the general public had seemingly awoken to the issue at hand, the surge in Shein sales, the cheapest of fast fashions, amidst the pandemic says otherwise. That being said, our short-attentions spans and attraction towards flashy momentary causes may mean that a mass awareness campaign across social media can possibly catapult the issue into a mainstream media topic.
In educating consumers to make smarter choices when it comes to clothing, the market will be forced to change to adapt to these needs. Thus, in boycotting brands that finance sweatshops, we as a people could collectively send a message to the fashion industry. Understandably, many are financially limited from completely cutting ties with fast fashion. However, opting for local brands, sans import costs, may be monetarily and ethically satisfying. The economic crisis in Lebanon has resulted in an influx of small, local businesses, creating a selection of options that may allow us to break the cycle of what may be more familiar but yet intrinsically harmful.