UPI: Iran cracks down on women's dress

[Psephos]

TEHRAN, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Police in Tehran have been ordering Iranian women to cover up, stopping those they perceive as "badly veiled."

<snip>

Ghaemi said that the penalty for violating a code that requires the complete covering of women's heads and bodies in public depends on the officers involved and the women's political connections.

<snip>

http://upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060829-070309-8053r


Heh heh, the head-to-toe bit reminds me of the nuns who ran my elementary school. However, at least they were doing it on a voluntary basis....

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Thank You President Amadinejad!

Thank you for this, and for stoning to death the adulterers, and hanging teenage homosexuals from cranes in the village square.

[PresidentWar]

2. Oh my GOD...Let's attack!!

[FloridaPat]

8. The repubs don't attack for women rights. Oil rights, defense contractor

rights, Halliburton rights - but not women's rights.

[CJCRANE]

14. But it's part of the rhetoric.

Part of the background is to demonize life in Iran so that when they are bombed to sh*t everyone thinks we're doing them a favor. I don't condone the Iranian govt for going more hardline, I'm against it but...
the focus on muslim countries as if every little thing they do is evil...when the MSM and West didn't give a sh*t about the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda who are christian terrorists who've been kidnapping and raping childeren for the last 30 years, not to mention all the other wars and atrocities going on in Africa and elsewhere that nobody pays any attention to.

[Kickoutthejams23]

11. Don't worry they only stone woman, gays and dogs.

:sarcasm:

[The Wielding Truth]

3. I've heard that it's easy to pay off the police

and people do what they want. Many women are religious and don't feel wearing a scarf as an imposition.

[eallen]

6. That kind of authoritarianism encourages police corruption

I trust you aren't suggesting that somehow lessens the culpability of a theocratic regime?

[The Wielding Truth]

13. I only suggest that the government is not in such tight control as seems

to be reported.

[cigsandcoffee]

4. What a repulsive and sexist system.

Iran's leaders are scum.

[panader0]

5. To tell you the truth, I was thinking about starting a "fashion police"

squad here in the US. No more really heavy people in tight sweats!! Yikes!! No more pants worn below the butt. No more speedos, spandex, etc. except for the very few that can wear that kinda stuff. Burkas for Coulter. Double bags for Pickles. Etc.

[cigsandcoffee]

7. I have to be honest here....

Responses like yours to this article amaze and disappoint me.

Here we have a religiously-dominated government appointing their all-male police force to grossly repress women - with "violations" determined by political connections - and people (who I presume call themselves liberal) would crack jokes about it, wittingly or unwittingly softening perceptions of a repulsive theocratic regime.

Others won't crack jokes, but instead ignore it.

People: my enemy's enemy is not always my friend. I hope that a Democratic administration will soon be dealing with Iran, but I'm not going to wait until then to open my eyes to the fact that there are some pretty shitty countries out there that need to shape up and get with the times. Iran is one of them, nomatter who is in the White House.

[Psephos]

10. cigs, you make a good point about the folly of softening perceptions

"...there are some pretty shitty countries out there that need to shape up and get with the times. Iran is one of them, nomatter who is in the White House."

I agree completely. Basic human rights do not stop at the American border (these days, I sometimes wonder whether they even start at the American border :-) )

I've never understood why those who speak and act passionately in defense of basic rights here are often silent about people in other parts of the world who are denied those rights. It's cynical and small-minded when the reason for silence is due to an "enemy of my enemy" political calculation.

That much said, I confess to hoping panader0 is successful in his crusade against ultratight sweats, muffin tops, and gluteal cheeks poking out above the elastic. :-)

Peace.

[Cleita]

9. Yes, but the nuns that ran my high school had a lot to say

about our clothes, the length of the skirts, the jewelry and make up you could wear and how loose the clothes should be. Also, we had to wear veils and long sleeves to chapel. Even though it wasn't as extreme as Islamic dress codes it was still intrusive, I thought, hinting that we were perhaps too slutty to know how to dress modestly. Of course I suspect they were getting their directives from the archdiocese another all male club.

[MetaTrope]

12. Woohoo for Free Iraq!

As River said in her latest post:

I look at my older clothes- the jeans and t-shirts and colorful skirts- and it’s like I’m studying a wardrobe from another country, another lifetime. There was a time, a couple of years ago, when you could more or less wear what you wanted if you weren’t going to a public place. If you were going to a friends or relatives house, you could wear trousers and a shirt, or jeans, something you wouldn’t ordinarily wear. We don’t do that anymore because there’s always that risk of getting stopped in the car and checked by one militia or another.

There are no laws that say we have to wear a hijab (yet), but there are the men in head-to-toe black and the turbans, the extremists and fanatics who were liberated by the occupation, and at some point, you tire of the defiance. You no longer want to be seen. I feel like the black or white scarf I fling haphazardly on my head as I walk out the door makes me invisible to a certain degree- it’s easier to blend in with the masses shrouded in black. If you’re a female, you don’t want the attention- you don’t want it from Iraqi police, you don’t want it from the black-clad militia man, you don’t want it from the American soldier. You don’t want to be noticed or seen.

I have nothing against the hijab, of course, as long as it is being worn by choice. Many of my relatives and friends wear a headscarf. Most of them began wearing it after the war. It started out as a way to avoid trouble and undue attention, and now they just keep it on because it makes no sense to take it off. What is happening to the country?

I realized how common it had become only in mid-July when M., a childhood friend, came to say goodbye before leaving the country. She walked into the house, complaining of the heat and the roads, her brother following closely behind. It took me to the end of the visit for the peculiarity of the situation to hit me. She was getting ready to leave before the sun set, and she picked up the beige headscarf folded neatly by her side. As she told me about one of her neighbors being shot, she opened up the scarf with a flourish, set it on her head like a pro, and pinned it snuggly under her chin with the precision of a seasoned hijab-wearer. All this without a mirror- like she had done it a hundred times over… Which would be fine, except that M. is Christian.

If M. can wear one quietly- so can I.