Stance on dress code stains
Ahmadinejad By Kimia Sanati
TEHRAN - When the government of President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad uncharacteristically denounced
the country's police force for strictly enforcing
Islamic dress code (hijab), it was
attributed to fears of losing popularity ahead of
parliamentary elections in March.
In an
article published in the Iran newspaper, the
official mouthpiece, government spokesman Gholam
Hossein Elham criticized the police force and said
the president and his cabinet were not to be held
responsible for their overzealousness in
dealing with hijab
violators.
In his weekly press conference,
the spokesman also accused the chief commander of
the police, who happens to be Ahmadinejad's
brother-in-law, of not having presented the
government with comprehensive plans on the issue.
Improving observance of the hijab
has been approved by the country's Supreme
Cultural Revolution and the police have been
entrusted with 21 tasks in this regard, police
chief Ahmadi Moghaddam was reported by Shahab News
as saying defensively. He also said that details
of the plan had been discussed with the president
several times and the police had documents proving
it.
In his campaign for the presidency in
2005, Ahmadinejad had consistently denied rumors
that, if elected, his government would forcibly
enforce the obligatory dress code. A few strands
of hair sticking out from under women's
headscarves or the way young men wore their hair
was not his concern, he had said over the
state-run television. Banners that read the same
thing floated around in the streets of big cities.
"Twenty-nine years from the time of the
revolution people still resist the dress code
imposed on them or there would no longer be need
for the police to interfere so often to correct
their behavior," a university student from Tabriz
told Inter Press Service (IPS).
"The
number of women wearing the black veil or men with
beards is clearly very small, except in places
like Qom, a religious capital, where tradition
reigns hard. Ahmadinejad is a very clever man and
he realized this fact, so in his campaign he
stressed he was not going to impose tighter
enforcement of the dress code," she said.
Crackdowns on hijab are a regular
feature of life in Iran. Annually, as summer sets
in there are enforcement drives lasting for few
weeks to stop women from revealing more skin and
hair during the hot summer season.
This
year the police have gone further and the
crackdown that started in late April in
anticipation of the hot season has lasted well
into winter.
Since April almost one in
every 70 Iranians has been stopped on the streets
by the morality police and thousands arrested. A
number of shops and restaurants have also been
closed by the police for allowing individuals with
"bad hijab" to enter. Clothing retailers
have also been warned not to sell short and tight
dresses or their goods would be confiscated.
"The moral police are constantly expanding
their list of 'the inappropriate'. This winter
started with warnings to women not to wear long
boots in place of pants, and to make sure their
coats come down below their knees. Tucking pants
inside boots as well as using knitted hats to
cover hair have also come to be considered as
inappropriate," a 35-year-old female engineer in
Tehran told IPS.
"The police chief of
Tehran says wearing long boots is meant, on the
women's part, to draw male attention and is
therefore immoral and black-veiled policewomen on
the streets arrest women dressed like that as if
they were criminals," she said.
Soon after
the Islamic Revolution of 1978 women were forced
to wear headscarves and long, loose dresses to
cover their hair and bodies completely. For years
women were not allowed into public places and
government offices if they did not follow the
dress code or wore makeup. For men the code bans
short sleeves while frowning upon shaven faces or
long hair.
Since the early 1990s pressure
has been relaxed gradually and by the end of the
reformist Mohammad Khatami's second term of
presidency in 2005, the dresses and headscarves
were still there but had become shorter and
smaller.
But hardliners accused Khatami of
having encouraged moral corruption in the society
by advocating social tolerance, and on a few
occasions demonstrated against him wearing shrouds
as a sign of being ready to die in the battle
against immorality.
Since the police
started implementing their plan in April, they
have frequently been criticized for being too
strict in dealing with women with inadequate
hijab and even with young men whose
hairstyle or clothing is regarded as 'copied from
degenerate Western fashions'. Hardliners have, on
the other hand, cheered them on.
Police
harshness has on many occasions gone as far as
using physical violence against individuals on the
streets. In a number of cases this has caused
clashes between citizens and police.
When
a famous talkshow host on the state-run television
confronted the Tehran police chief with stories of
violence on the streets after an early crackdown
in the spring, he was sacked and his show was
cancelled.
"The government denial of any
involvement in the police action against what the
religious establishment calls bad hijab and
immorality can have no other reason than an
attempt to improve the already very troubled image
of the government, particularly among the young
voters," an observer in Tehran told IPS.
"Seventy percent of the country's
population is under the age of 30 and they are the
ones who are affected the most by the police
crackdown. In other places, like in universities,
vigilantes are putting the same kind of pressure
on them, not only by controlling the way they
dress but also by keeping men and women as
separate as they can to safeguard their own kind
of morality," he said.
"Two and half years
since his election to presidency Ahmadinejad's
government has clearly failed to improve people's
lives the way he promised. Rationing of gasoline
that was introduced a few months back and
inflation that his government has not been able to
control have also spoiled the government's image
among many of the voters outside the normal 20% of
voters loyal to the hardline establishment," he
added.
"Even inside the hardline
establishment many have turned against him because
of the man's refusal to let other players
participate in his games. Naturally, with all
these woes the government will not want to have to
take the blame for the police's overzealousness in
dealing with hijab," the observer said.
Parliamentary elections will be held March
14. The existing parliament has a hardline and
conservative majority that basically supports the
government. But even they have on several
occasions impeded the president by not approving
government bills or the president's candidates for
ministers.
"Ahmadinejad urgently needs to
get his supporters into the parliament. Reformists
have been very active recently. Former president
Khatami who is not running himself has been
travelling around the country on behalf of the
reformists and has been warmly welcomed in many
places. There seems to be a rather serious
possibility that reformists, at least more
moderate ones, may make a comeback if candidates'
disqualification by the Guardian Council doesn't
prevent that," an analyst in Tehran told IPS.
"The government's attempt to cast blame
[on the police] for interfering in people's
private lives is risky for Ahmadinejad because the
hardline religious establishment that has so far
backed his presidency strictly demands that the
government participate actively in enforcing
Islamic laws and in correcting people's morality
and behavior. Even the Supreme Leader Khamenei has
on several occasions supported the police plans.
But it seems like Ahmadinejad has chosen to take
the risk of estranging the religious
establishment, to stay in power," he added.
(Inter Press Service)
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