The Chador Problem

Rooz Online:

First black chador’s were the order of the day. Then came the long coats – called manteau -that covered women, and at least they had sleeves. Then came brown and cream colored manteaus. Even white was unusual. Nowadays, even green, pink and orange manteaus abound the streets of Tehran. Now chadors seem odd.

At one time these were the accepted colors: dark blue, brown. But now women television announcers appear in colorful manteaus. It is now common to see fathers with religious outfits and appearance, walking down the streets of Tehran with his chador-wearing wife and their daughter with an orange-color manteau. Yes, altogether. And yes in Tehran. The Islamicists seem to believe that these women’s outfits no longer hurt their pride and honor, and not even of Islam, as used to be announced a few years earlier. READ MORE

Even headscarves have changed. A writer who had returned to Iran after a few years of life outside, was happily surprised to see that the days when women used to completely cover their hair are gone. Instead of that thick dark scarf that even covered the women’s neck, he was delighted to see women with a think narrow scarf, the “shal”.

But such displays of color and hair are still not without incident. There are groups tasked to prevent such displays, but they seem to be on holiday these days. Officials have repeatedly tried to present models of how women should look like or what they should wear, but the public has simply looked the other way. So no, they have kind of given up. Perhaps it is because there are more important issues at stake for them. The Majlis (Parliament) has a bill before it to define exactly such a dress code. Some deputies are adamant in passing legislature that would codify the dress, and purify the “Muslim society.” Public opinion is so adamant against such impositions, especially through the use of force, that one should think twice to again re-engage the public and the morals police. Even women wearing the chador are not comfortable with forceful imposition of any code on women and openly say so.