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One size fits four….

A government “approved” fashion show was held this week in Tehran where the Culture and Islamic Orientation Minister hailed the burka line-up as “what women want to wear” and not what they’ve been “forced to wear” by the western “fashion industry”.

DBKP wondered, do Iranian women, according to the Minister of Islamic Orientation and Culture, really “want to wear” clothing mandated by the government, that covers them from “head to toe?

According to the New York Post, 12 models donned 60 outfits, the majority of them burkas, for an audience made up of mostly women photographers and members of the press.

Culture and Islamic Orientation Minister Saffar Harandi of the Islamic Republic of Iran felt the show “freed” Iranian women from the “shackles” of the western fashion industry:

This is an unparalleled event for Iranian women, who until now have not had the opportunity to dress how they want to but have been forced to wear whatever the fashion industry imposes on our society,” said the man who once agreed with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s assertion that the Holocaust is a “myth.”
–Iranian Culture and Islamic Orientation Minister Saffar Harandi

Up, up and away… hot air girl!

Lovely and alluring… for galactic tea parties.

Sharia law, which is based on the Islam faith, prohibits women from “showing too much skin”. Women are to be covered from head to toe, not to protect themselves, but to protect the men from being caused to “lust” over a sinewy ankle or exposed elbow.

While it may seem we’re being glib in our description of the newest burka fashions, women in Iran know what they wear is not something to joke about.

Life in Iran

In Iran, there is no separation between religion and government. Iran’s law contains codes based on the principles of Islam. Women’s style of dress and manner of behavior are always under the watchful eye of the authorities.

“Under Islamic sharia law, imposed after Iran’s 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures and protect their modesty. Violators can receive lashes, fines or imprisonment.
Source - New York Post

Women are approached on the street by the “moral police” and given a verbal warning that what they are wearing is offensive. If the “offense” is deemed extremely offensive by a member of the “guidance patrol”, the women can be immediately led away to a police station. A severe enough infraction can lead to “classes” and/or jail time.

DBKP found this horrifying video of a young girl arrested for not wearing the “appropriate” clothing in Iran:

Iran’s Sharia police have been busy enforcing the “immoral dress” code imposed following 1979’s Iran Revolution. Recently, Reuters reported that the police are going to “intensify” their efforts to confront women who allegedly wear “immodest” clothing.

Iran police to make more Islamic dress checks
Sunday, 15 July 2007
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian police will intensify a crackdown on women flouting Islamic dress code, a police official told a newspaper on Sunday, in the first reinforcement of regular summertime campaigns.

Such crackdowns have become a regular feature of Iranian life, but it is the first time police have pledged to toughen up measures that began in April.

A human rights group on Saturday criticised Iran for abuses like police crackdowns on violations of the Islam dress code. It said some 488 men and women were detained during the first days of the crackdown.

“From Mordad (the Iranian month starting on July 23) police numbers will double to confront such immoral behaviour,” the Farhang-e Ashti daily quoted Tehran police chief Ahmad Reza Radan as saying.

Under Islamic sharia law, imposed after Iran’s 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures and protect their modesty. Violators can receive lashes, fines or imprisonment.

While the Iran Culture and Islamic Orientation Minister claims the burka fashions will give women “what they want to wear” this video gives, at times, a hysterical glimpse into the women hired by the Iran government to patrol the streets on the look out for “inappropriate” garb and behavior:

Women adhering to a religious dress code is only offensive if women are not given freedom of choice. While American women can only imagine a life where the decision to wear a pair of pants to the market could lead to jail time or lashings, this is the daily reality of Iranian women.

The hard-lined Islam based Iranian government claims that women who are allowed to dress themselves however they choose, will lead to an explosion of “immorality”. What the mullahs who control Iran truly fear, is that if women who are allowed to dress in the manner they choose, freedom of choice, will lead to a slippery slope of other “freedoms” we in America enjoy, such as freedom of speech and the separation of church and religion. The only way “freedoms” in Iran can return would be the ouster of those who control the country, the head honchos of Islam in Iran, the mullahs.

“Forced to wear what you want to wear”

Until then, Iranian women will be continue to live in a schizophrenic society, where the government, in the form of burka clad women police, will punish other women, for not wearing what the women “want to wear”.

By LBG

Source - Breitbart - On Patrol with Iran’s Fashion Police
Source - Payvand - UN Human Rights Council Comes Under Fire
Source - Reuters - Iran Police to make more Islamic dress checks
Source - New York Post - Tehran’s Cover Girls