Iran Again Enforcing Its Dress Codes
Iran on Thursday launched a new campaign to enforce Islamic dress codes that prohibit women from showing more than their faces and hands in public.
Tehran Radio quoted the director of the Anti-Vice Bureau as saying that only blatant violators will be sent to court but that names of all offenders will be kept in computer files for further action. Penalties include up to 74 lashes, but enforcement has been sporadic in the past.
“The hair, neck, chest, arms and legs must all be covered, and well,” Mahmoud Taheri, governor general of Tehran province, proclaimed Wednesday evening on Iranian television.
“A smock should not be so tight as to reveal curves. . . . Such a thing would lead to vice and corruption, he said.”
Taheri also said women should wear only “serene colors.” Men, he said, should not leave their shirts unbuttoned or show much of their arms.
The radio report, monitored in Cyprus, said private companies, hotels, restaurants, parks and hiking trails will be checked to ensure compliance.
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