Author: Reuters
Publication: www.expressindia.com
Date: July 14, 2004
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=33739
Forget the nuclear inspectors, instability
in Iraq or soaring drugs use. The hot topic in Iran these days is fashion
- what women can and cannot wear.
Morals police and Islamic vigilantes
have launched a fierce crackdown on "improper dress", seizing tight coats
and cropped trousers from fashionable shopping centres and detaining scores
of women every day for flouting the Islamic dress code.
The code, or Hejab in Persian, was
imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution and requires women to cover their
hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures.
Roshanak, 27, was arrested by police
and held for two days when her scarf slipped off while parking her car.
"My husband had to pay 10 million
rials ($1,170) to free me and I am pending trial. My lawyer said I may
be lashed as well."
While the crackdown on improper
Hejab is not new - enforcement typically spikes in the summer as soaring
temperatures prompt many women to test the boundaries of the law - the
level of debate accompanying it is unprecedented.
According to local media the Interior
Ministry is drafting new guidelines on Hejab to clarify what can and cannot
be worn.
For many, ruling on the acceptable
length of women's coats or whether sandals and earrings are banned imperils
the tiny sartorial freedoms women have gained in recent years.
"The way people dress is a matter
for individuals to decide... the government cannot approve a Bill like
this," the reformist Sharq newspaper said in an editorial.
But many clerics, alarmed by the
growing number of women who have cast aside the traditional head-to-toe
black chador in favour of colourful scarves, tight coats and calf-length
capri pants, think the proposed Bill comes not a moment too soon.
"Some women appear in the streets
half a millimetre from breaking the Islamic dress code," said hardline
cleric Ahmad Khatami. "It is a very dangerous trend."
One senior cleric proposed an anti-vice
ministry similar to that used by the Taliban to force Afghan women to cover
up and men to grow beards. A hardline vigilante group has blamed bad Hejab
for rising rape cases and urged police to stamp it out.
Political analysts say the Hejab
issue may be a litmus test for the future of social freedoms, particularly
now that Islamic conservatives have all but ousted reformists from power.
Pro-Reform President Mohammad Khatami,
credited with encouraging more relaxed enforcement of rules such as Hejab
since his 1997 election, is in his last year in office. His allies lost
their parliamentary majority to conservatives in a February vote marred
by the mass disqualification of reformists.
"The moderates in the conservative
camp know that a severe crackdown on social issues would cause a backlash
from people but the traditionalists want to make an issue out of Hejab,"
said political analyst Hossein Rassam.
Reflecting divisions on how to treat
the issue, many of the dissenting voices against stricter dress codes come
from within the Islamic conservative camp itself.
"Any policy for cracking down on
those who violate Hejab which is imposed by the state will fail," the conservative
Resalat newspaper said in an editorial. Even supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, normally a proponent of strict adherence to Islamic values, sounded
a flexible note in a key speech last week. "Cultural mimicry is a big danger,
but don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to fashion, variety and innovation,"
he said.
