FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2003
Headscarf gives way to haute couture
REUTERS
TEHRAN : Iranian women are associated more with hijab than haute couture. Since Iran 's Islamic revolution in 1979, hijab, the obligatory dress code, has required women to wear clothes which disguise the shape of the body and cover the hair.
Fashion shows are normally held secretly in private homes, but last month the Iranian authorities allowed designer Mahla Zamani to hold one in public.
The show, a sign of a gradual relaxation of the dress code, was denounced by Tehran 's conservatives as a plot to undermine Islamic values.
Held ironically in a Tehran sports complex called Hijab, it was an all-female affair and photographers were banned.
"It is a hypocritical attempt to realize the evil aims of foreigners by snatching the Islamic covering from Muslim Iranian women," thundered the conservative Jomhuri-ye Eslami daily.
But enforcement of the dress code has relaxed in recent years. In public many young women wear long trousers with a knee-length coat, and allow as much hair as possible to spill out from under colorful silk headscarves.
Once behind closed doors, the coats and scarves come off, often revealing the latest dresses from top European fashion houses.
Zamani introduced a collection of traditional Persian designs that may augur a sartorial sea-change in what is Islamically permissible. She believes she can add spice and colour to the wardrobes of Iranian women without offending the sensibilities of strict officials.
"It is a cultural endeavor to revive traditional costumes. Why should we get fashion from the West?" she said. "My outfits are very well received and they will bring about change in women's Islamic clothing," said Zamani, who also publishes Iran 's first women's fashion journal, Lotous, launched this year.
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