3 June 2005
Behind veil, it's lipstick, powder for Iran women
- By AFP
Tehran, June 2: Ms Simin slips into the local beauty salon once a month. Her hair is blow dried and styled and her face made up - and then she hides it all under her headscarf, and heads back out into the real world.
Iranian women may be obliged to wear the chador - literally meaning tent - or otherwise a long coat and headscarf whenever they head outdoors, but that has not dampened their appetite to pamper themselves.
"I do it because it makes me feel good," says Ms Simin, a housewife and mother of two in her mid-30s. "It is in a woman's nature that she wants to look beautiful," explained hair stylist Farideh Yasami, busy applying streaks of red and blonde dye into another client's hair that will also never see the light of day.
Her busy salon is tucked away on a Tehran side street. Clients are buzzed in through a door that also carries the sign "No gentlemen permitted".
"Many of my clients are religious women who wear the chador," Yasami explains. "They all want the trendiest haircuts and colourings." For the past 26 years, Iran's ruling clerics have been at pains to keep women under wraps and away from the risk of "westoxication".
But that does not mean women are not expected to please their husbands at home, or otherwise desire to keep up with Western fashions as a feel-good release of frustration and a way of resisting authorities.
According to trader Ardavan Babai, sales of cosmetics and Western fashions are one of Iran's biggest retail opportunities, with the Iranian market continuing to lure big-name lipstick, powder and paint manufacturers from Europe.
"Cosmetics are a part of every woman's shopping basket. Even the teenagers know how to apply discreet but flawless make-up," he said. "Our suppliers have even modified their publicity to conform to the Islamic code," he said, pointing to a perfume advert devoid of the usual semi-naked model. Elsewhere in Tehran, trendy fashion and lingerie stores are also appearing, despite occasional raids by Islamist militiamen - who still try in vain to stop headscarves from slipping back and coats from getting too colourful.
"It is a very profitable business," explained store owner Mohammed Emami, who switched from selling kitchenware to off-the-peg fashions three years ago and hasn't looked back. "The only concern is moral clampdowns." "Feel limited by the coat and scarf," complained Mahsa Raoofi, a 21-year-old student who spends most of her small income from a part-time job on fashion.