Tolerance in Iran

[NCclimber 0]

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TEHERAN - Iranian police have warned 122,000 people, mostly women, about flouting strict Islamic dress codes since April and nearly 7,000 of those attended classes on respecting the rules, a newspaper said on Thursday.

Such crackdowns, on the women as well as on men deemed to have haircuts considered too Westernised, are an annual event and usually last a few weeks. But this year’s measures have been longer and more severe than in recent years.

Some government critics see the crackdown as part of broader measures to quash dissent in the media and other areas. Others see it as part of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s efforts to revive values from the early days after the 1979 revolution.

“Since the beginning of the crackdown from Ordibehesht (the Iranian month that started in April), 122,000 people have been given a warning for improper dress and 6,947 of them have taken part in guidance classes,” the daily Jomhuri-ye Islami reported.

Some women, particularly in cities during the hot summer months, test the boundaries of the dress codes requiring a woman’s hair to be covered and the shape of her body to disguised by a loose coat by wearing skimpier outfits.

The conservative newspaper, quoting a Teheran police commander, Reza Zaraei, said 2,422 people were detained. It was not immediately clear what happened to those detained, but in the past some had been held for a few hours.

Barbers have been told not to offer Western-style haircuts, including spiked hair, or plucking eyebrows. Iran’s conservative politicians regularly rail against the “immoral” influence of the West on Iran and its culture.

Zaraei said 80,000 bottles of liquor, banned in the Islamic Republic, were also seized.

He said 482 people were arrested for taking part in mixed parties. Men and women are not allowed to mix at close quarters in Iran, unless they are family members.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2007/October/middleeast_October137.xml§ion=middleeast

[billvon 3,114]

Sounds like the US, circa 1920. The Women's Christian Temperance Union had of course succeeded in banning alcohol, and women's fasions (and the paranoia surrounding them) were quite similar.

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Swimming, the activity for which bathing costumes were ostensibly designed, had been an increasingly popular pastime since at least the latter third of the nineteenth century. Early on, it appears, many felt that swimming was quite dangerous and relied on ingenious methods to reduce its risks. The "bathing car" was a large wire cage with attached floats. Bathers could occupy the cage and then immerse themselves by means of a pulley system to whatever depth they preferred. Not only was there great apprehension about bathers' personal safety in the late nineteenth century, but many worried even more about bathers' modesty. In fact, most public bathing at that time was a sexually segregated event. Women were carefully shielded from men's view. They rode wheeled "bathing machines" discreetly into the surf instead of forthrightly walking into it, the "modesty hoods" attached to these machines keeping the submersion process hidden.
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Swimming costume in the early 1920s was a fairly voluminous two-piece tunic and knickers that was a carry-over from the 1910s. . . .

Of course these revealing styles of swimwear did not arrive without controversy. The first women to wear the more revealing tank suits were arrested for “indecent exposure”. Annette Kellerman, a champion swimmer and later star of vaudeville and motion pictures, popularized the one-piece bathing suit. But even she would be arrested for indecent exposure at Boston’s Revere Beach. The one-piece bathing suit, or the “Annette Kellerman” as it came to be called, was considered the most daring kind of bathing apparel and became the focus of many censorship acts. The suit was doubly offensive when stocking were eliminated or were not worn according to regulations, which meant they were rolled below the knee. In Atlantic City, “beach cops” enforced the hosiery rule.
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[ryoder 1,590]

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Sounds like the US, circa 1920.

Hmmm... In 45 years, when Iran has entered the mid-1960's, it might be a fun place to visit.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[billvon 3,114]

>In 45 years, when Iran has entered the mid-1960's, it might be a fun place to visit.

That's what I'm thinking!

Of course, by then we'll probably be all religious-conservative and be condemning them for prostitution, licentiousness and complete lack of morality, all of which means they need to be liberated.

[JohnRich 4]

And in "Skydiving" news magazine, there was a blurb about the Iranian authorities shutting down the new skydiving center in that nation, run by PA Aviation. It seems that skydiving just doesn't comport well with muslim moral codes.

So I guess that makes all of us active skydivers: "infidels"!

But hey, if that's what their authorities want to do, then we should respect that, and to heck with all the Iranians that would like to be free to skydive.

[SARLDO 0]

***He said 482 people were arrested for taking part in mixed parties. Men and women are not allowed to mix at close quarters in Iran, unless they are family members.***

Heck, within the next 40 - 60 years, there all going to die out from self-imposed celibacy or incest anyway and we can just go on over and take all the carpets we want.

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest" ~Samuel Clemens

MB#4300
Dudeist Skydiver #68

[Adriandavies 0]

My in-laws live in Tehran and so far this crackdown hasn't made one bit of difference to them or any of their family or friends. They still have their satellite dish, mini head scarfs and short mantos (tunics), they still party most weekends and can still get booze if they want, in fact one of them is still as gay as he was before the crackdown. For the most part this sort of thing is just headline grabbing news which if anything pushes the people further away from the government.

12 million people live in the city so the percentage affected by this effort has been minute so far.

[Amazon 7]

I guess it boils down to.. you are ok as long as you are doing nothing wrong.. or dont get caught