Nothing says spring in Iran quite like the dress code police. Reports indicate the morality enforcement officers are under orders to tighten up control of the population. Relax honey, it’s supposed to make you look fat.
Iran warns women over slack dressing: The nationwide drive, an annual pre-summer crackdown given greater prominence this year, is aimed primarily at women whose coats are seen as too tight, trousers excessively short or hejabs (headscarves) overly loose. It foresees handing out warnings and guidance to women found to have infringed its dress code in public. Those who show resistance to change can be arrested and then be the subject of legal proceedings.
Women in Iran are obliged by law to wear the hejab and a full length overcoat that covers all bodily contours. Visiting foreigners and religious minorities are not exempted. Mohammad Taghi Rahbar, a member of the culture committee of the Iranian parliament, was quoted by the Etemad newspaper as saying a harder line towards female dress was long overdue.
"The current situation is shameful for an Islamic government. A man who sees these models on the streets will pay no attention to his wife at home, destroying the foundation of the family," he warned. The Tehran police spokesman warned that men were not exempt from the crackdown. Ahmadi said officers would also target men sporting clothes deemed too tight or hairstyles deemed too extravagant.
Meanwhile President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad moves to the next item on his agenda and announces: “Negotiation is the best way out of Iran's nuclear stand-off”, while his chief negotiator Ali Larijani simultaneously announces: "Europeans would do well to give up on their demand that we suspend uranium enrichment so as not to get yet another negative response which would seriously compromise their prestige". Still, everyone needs to have lunch so why not dress up nice, chit chat over tea and pretend Iran is benignly working towards peaceful coexistence with the modern world.
