Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Gender, Headlines, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa

IRAN: Dress Code Row – Another Ahmadinejad Failure

Kimia Sanati

TEHRAN, Apr 29 2007 (IPS) - This year&#39s uncharacteristically harsh crackdown on &#39bad hijab&#39 (improper dressing), that has pitted the moral police against the public, is being seen as one more election promise that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been unable to keep.

&#39&#39The government has tried to keep away from being directly associated with the crackdown and a spokesman even denied any role by the government. But the interior minister commands the police force and has himself strongly supported the plan so there is no way the crackdown could have taken place without the government sanction," an observer in Tehran told IPS, asking not to be named.

"Hardliners have for years been demanding that the system suppress younger people showing scorn for the Islamic system by the way they dress. In spite of his campaign promises, Ahmadinejad has had to give implicit support for the crackdown – even at the price of estranging the electorate as pressure from the hard line camp mounts,&#39&#39 he added.

&#39&#39As usual he (Ahmadinejad) is playing a make believe game, levelling accusations at &#39enemies&#39 who encourage young people to neglect the Islamic dress code so that when the Islamic state cracks down on them, they are disillusioned and become unhappy with the system. It&#39s as if the younger generation is manipulated by the enemies all the time to tarnish the image of the Islamic regime and that&#39s the only reason for what they call &#39bad hijab&#39," the observer said.

Mainly implemented in the capital, the annual crackdown had evolved into an affair that coincides with the onset of summer when the searing heat prompts women to be less respectful of the country&#39s strict dress code. This year though, it is being enforced more vigorously than usual with hardliners&#39 cries to correct "social mores&#39&#39 getting shriller.

Ansar-e Hizbullah, a hard line pressure group, known for taking public morality issues into its own hands, called the public to a protest march to support the initiative taken by the law enforcement forces after Friday prayers before the police crackdown began last week.

The hard line group had criticised the authorities&#39 failure to put an end to what it called immorality in the society, particularly during the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) when pressure on the public relaxed, but did not cease altogether.

The law enforcement forces&#39 recent crackdown was cheered on by hard line newspapers like &#39Keyhan&#39 and &#39Jomhuri Eslami&#39. It was also extensively advertised in advance by the state-run media with several top brass officials of the law enforcement forces appearing on the state television and discussing various aspects of the issue, warning the public to abide by the laws or face the consequences.

"Everybody knows what improper dressing is and how one should appear in the public," Brig. Gen. Ahmad Rouzbehani, director general of the law enforcement centre for combating social corruption, told the Iranian News Agency. "Anybody who is improperly dressed must therefore expect to face up legal encounter by the police," he added.

As could be expected, reformists, and in some cases even certain conservatives and hardliners like the country&#39s Chief of Judiciary Ayatollah Shahroudi, are now criticising the crackdown itself, its intensity or methods used by the police.

"Combating improper dressing is cultural work. Arresting people&#39s children…is in no way acceptable. I can never defend an Iranian youth getting involved with the legal system for something like improper dressing," Abed Fattahi, a reformist member of the Iranian Parliament told Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA).

&#39&#39Battling poverty, drug addiction and unemployment are more urgent issues than tackling improper dressing. Much more important problems in foreign and domestic policy now have to be addressed by the government," Fattahi was quoted as saying.

Ahmadinejad was elected to power two years ago on a pledge to expose and punish the corrupt, send the clergy back to the mosques and put food on the tables millions of poor families by redirecting Iran&#39s enormous oil wealth. He also promised to create new jobs for at least 10 million Iranians, aged between 16 and 60.

Far from fulfilling those promises, the Ahmadinejad administration built up a confrontation with the West over its nuclear programme leading to tightening international sanctions. Domestically it launched drives against all types of dissent, even arresting hundreds of teachers for demanding promised pay and benefits.

On the streets of Tehran police stop women and order them to cover their hair with their shawls or scarves completely or remove their make-up. Tight-fitting dresses, Bermuda pants and sandals that reveal feet and lower legs could result in a visit to the police station though bail can be had on signing a pledge to wear clothes that conform to Islamic laws.

Men are also stopped occasionally for what the police call "improper appearance" or even playing loud music in their cars which the police call nuisance to public. Improper appearance for men can be anything from the way they wear their hair and beards to low cut jeans or T-shirts with images or words considered improper.

"I was stopped on the street by two police officers. They told me my long hair was inappropriate for a man and un-Islamic. They shoved me into a police van and took me to the police department in charge of dealing with bad dress code and moral corruption. I was released after hours of waiting, only after I signed a pledge to cut my hair and never wear it long," a 24-year-old man told IPS. "The place was full of girls and women and some young men. Charges ranged from wearing tight dresses and skimpy shawls or, in the case of men, to long hair and beards modelled after western pop stars.&#39&#39

&#39Improperly dressed&#39 women in cars are not spared. The police have orders to stop cars, even on the highways, and detain the improperly dressed driver or passengers, Mehdi Ahmadi, a high ranking police official was quoted by Iranian Labour New Agency as saying. The crackdown also targets shops selling improper clothing and 65 shops were closed down by the police on the first two days of the crackdown, he said.

Thousands of women and men have been issued warnings on the streets of Tehran and a number of cars in which passengers were improperly dressed or were playing loud music were hauled away to police stations.

This year&#39s crackdown is unique in another respect. Anybody taken to the police station for "improper dressing" will be photographed for record, Col. Mohammad Hosseini of the law enforcement forces told ILNA.

Following new restrictions imposed on university students in Shiraz University, including a ban on shorts and sleeveless shirts in university dormitories, students staged a sit-in on the campus last Monday and demanded the resignation of the university chancellor.

More than 2,000 student protestors of Shiraz University, both male and female, released a list of their demands last week that included, among other things, abandoning of all imposed restrictions on girls and boys "particularly the irrelevant sensitivity to women&#39s dress and respect for students private sphere", ILNA reported.

"The Islamic Republic&#39s situation is somewhat unique. The regime has to fight on two fronts, internal and external. While it is engaged in a war of attrition with big world powers over its foreign policy outlook, posing itself as United States&#39 arch foe, particularly with its nuclear ambitions, Ayatollah Khamenei&#39s theocracy has no choice but contain, even if it calls for use of force, any move towards western-style liberties," a political analyst in Tehran told IPS, on condition of anonymity.