IRAN--Clothing

Clothing standards are something that all residents of the country plus guests must abide by. For men it isn’t much of a problem. No shorts or tight jeans allowed! Long sleeves are preferred over short even in the hot weather and of course long pants. Most men look at least half way dressed up even when they are working outside or relaxing in the park. We did see some younger adults in jeans and a few short sleeves, but they were in the minority.

Now, the women’s restrictions are a different story. The law is this: in public…. hair and neck must be covered with a scarf or covering; no arms or legs may show; and blouses or tunics should almost reach the knees and be loose enough not to show any curves! Hands and even feet may show, but not the ankle!! The restrictions seemed to be adhered to more closely in the rural/small town areas and by the older female population....although we never saw a woman that wasn't abiding the rules pretty closely.


As I understand it, a woman/older girl may wear whatever she wishes when she is in the protection of her home but must cover when she goes out. A typical cover would be a close fitting skull cap covered with a scarf or other covering…then add a black cape like piece of fabric (locally called a chador) to cover the rest of the body down to the feet. Although it seems like a button would be a good thing, the cape seems to just be held with one hand or fastened with a pin.

Younger women/city dwellers are beginning to push the rule a bit by wearing a loose colored scarf, and colored….although still long… tunic. You see either loose long pants or skirts under the tunics often over very stylish high heels or sandals. There are evidently undercover patrols that watch out for inappropriate dress. Our guide said that his wife was picked up for having a tunic that was too thin, taken to jail, and not released until he brought her some more clothes.

Younger children can dress in regular western type clothes, but most wear a uniform to school. They are colorful and different schools choose different colors and styles. But, the girls always have a head scarf on!

Religious men always wear multiple layers of long robes. Most have a white turban wound around their heads. However, if you see a black turban,that denotes the Mullah is a direct descendant of Mohammad….which is very important to the Shiite Moslems.

We were told of these restrictions before we arrived, so were prepared (somewhat!!) for the dress code. I think that most of our tunics weren’t quite long enough and our scarves often loosened up, but no one was arrested.

We saw just a few women who had the full chador on….the one that just shows the eyes, but not the face. We were told that these were Arab women. The Persian (Iranian) women do not ever wear the full chador.