Iran Cracks Down On Women's Dress Code
Police Arrest Nearly 300 Women Accused Of Not Covering Up Enough
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An Iranian police officer detains a woman for not adhering to the strict Islamic dress code in Tehran Monday April, 23, 2007. Iran's hard-line police have detained about 300 women and given warnings to more than 3,500 others within two days in the capital. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)
The campaign in the streets of major cities was the toughest such crackdown in nearly two decades, raising fears that hard-liner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intends to re-impose the tough Islamic Revolution-era constraints on women's dress that loosened in past years.
The move highlighted the new boldness among hard-liners in Ahmadinejad's government, which has used mounting Western pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program and Iraq as a pretext to put down internal dissent.
But it could bring a backlash at a time when many Iranians resent Ahmadinejad for failing to boost the faltering economy or halt spiraling prices and blame him for isolating Iran with his fiery rhetoric. The two-day-old crackdown was already angering moderates.
"What they do is really insulting. You simply can't tell people what to wear. They don't understand that use of force only brings hatred toward them, not love," said Elham Mohammadi, a 23-year-old female student.
Her hair was hardly hidden by her white-and-orange headscarf — an infraction that could bring police attention. Police could be seen Monday stopping and giving warnings to other women who were showing too much hair or even wearing too colorful a headscarf.
Looser dress codes are one of the few surviving gains from the era of Ahmadinejad's predecessor, reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who was in power from 1997 to 2005.
During that time, many women, particularly in cities, shed the dress code imposed after the 1979 revolution — veils completely covering the hair and heavy coats or the black or gray head-to-toe chador hiding the shape of the body.
Now it is common to see women in loose headscarves — some as narrow as a ribbon — that show much of their hair and short, colorful, form-fitting jackets that stop at the knee — or even higher — showing jeans underneath. Even under Ahmadinejad in the past two years, women can be seen in pants that leave the bottom of their calves bare.
Any of those styles could bring warnings or detention from the anti-vice police in the current sweep, which began Saturday.
Anti-vice police — many of them women — have been stopping women in the streets of the capital and other cities if they deem their dress is "un-Islamic."
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard's Corps, IRGC, has stressed that the political propaganda and psychological war waged by the United States against the Iranian people is doomed to fail.
Gosh, that sounds really familiar. I wonder where I've heard that.
Islam wants to take it away.
Doesnt anyone realize that this stuff is orthodox Islam...right up the center, directly from the Koran.
Freedom of religion only exists under islam if your a muslim.
...what's the difference?
Posted by spoly13 at 05:58 PM : Apr 24, 2007
The reason the majority of office holding liberals are not on the "anti-gun" bandwagon is because based on several polls, gun owning liberals are almost on par with gun owning conservatives. And besides, the topic is the freedom of women dress as they wish. Even when Bush is gone, Iran will still continue to pursue mid-evil draconian rules for society that keep women from rising beyond the status as property.
Why isn't there a comment from Hillary or the NOW girls or Gloria Steinam about this outrageous treatment of women??
Why aren't they organizing protests and burning scarves in front of the Iranian embassy???
...
- by infidel_us April 24, 2007 6:11 PM EDT
- Wow.....sounds like they feel the same way about Ahmadinejad as libs feel about Bush. :)
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