Thursday, August 19, 2004
Parliament proposes Iranian national dress
* Iranian hardliners rule out gender equality
TEHRAN: Iran's conservative parliament is preparing designs for national Islamic costumes to combat the corrupting influence of Western fashion, a prominent MP said Wednesday.
"We have to design new trends within the framework of an Islamic dress code. Both men and women need a national costume," Emad Afroogh, head of the parliamentary cultural commission, told student news agency ISNA. He added that a national fashion reform bill had been put before the parliament's research centre for approval.
The move comes after the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the nation in July about a "cultural invasion" and the dangers of imitating foreigners, asserting that Iranians needed to design their own styles.
In recent weeks state television has dedicated part of its main news programme to the question of "What is fashion?" - a series of interviews with residents, clerics and "experts" aimed at defining what can and cannot be worn.
The Tehran chief of police warned women a few days ago not to dress like "models", while a general clampdown over the last few months has seen police rounding up hundreds of young women sporting flimsy headscarves, three-quarter-length trousers and shape-revealing coats.
Gender equality: Iran's conservative-dominated parliament voted down a bid by its reformist predecessor to support women's rights and enforce gender equality, press reports said on Wednesday.
A bill passed earlier this year by the previous parliament had already been sent back by the conservative watchdog body the Guardians Council, which vets all legislation, on the grounds that it was against Islamic law.
Conservatives won control of the assembly in controversial elections in February, which saw many reformist candidates disqualified by the same Guardians Council, and took office in May.
They have since reversed a number of measures taken by the reformist government of President Mohammad Khatami, who still has another year in office.
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