Iran - dress codes, courageous women and hope

Firstly: Everything we write here is our own opinion, based on almost 3 months in the country. "The image of women's rights in Iran is often characterised by the obligation to wear the veil. This does not do justice to the complexity of the issue, as on the one hand the range of discrimination is ignored and on the other hand women - contrary to social reality - are reduced to the status of victims." https://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/apuz/31568/frauenrechte-in-iran/

Protests & strong, courageous women

You can read a lot about the protests a year and a half ago (2022) on the internet. People keep asking us about it. Whether we had heard about it. For me as a Western woman, the restrictions are painful when I think about freedom. We don't want to presume to judge or even evaluate religion. Especially as even "our" church is not free from misconduct.

The power and rebellion of women, especially young women, is enormous. The increasingly frequent lack of hijab clearly shows this. According to surveys, 81 % of the population are against the Islamic Republic in its current form (I recommend the current podcast here). Also and above all men.

One example: In the desert, we are invited to a campfire by a class of girls. Many of the young women sing, dance and really enjoy being together (dancing is officially forbidden for women, but we didn't realise this throughout the country). At some point I'm asked to dance along. I am reluctant. Because I'm not musical at all. The teacher comes up to me and asks if I'm scared because women aren't allowed to dance. I say no and point out my lack of elegance. She laughs and kindly pulls me into the circle. And so we all dance together, many of us really well, one of the tall ones full of joy, but still spindly. No matter, I laugh and enjoy the moment.

The evening continues, we cook together, chat, play handpan. One of the young women comes up to me and says: "I want to give you my necklace, please take it out into the world. And one day, I hope we'll be as free as you are. I want that so much". I don't know what to say. Tears well up in my eyes, we hug and she disappears into the group of girls again.

I first have to gain some distance, the tears won't stop. When I can see clearly again, I see the symbol of protest on the chain: "Woman, life, freedom". And again it shakes me.

There I am, with a necklace that is forbidden. And with a deep understanding of her desire for freedom. I hide the necklace as best I can (and actually only find it again weeks after we leave Iran) and keep my promise: I will take it out into the world. Because it is important to me to tell this story here. I'm nowhere near as brave as the Iranian women and I'm protecting myself by not writing it all down until after we've left, but I really wanted to share this experience.

Photo: I deliberately decided against the cliché photo of a woman wearing a chador. And I don't want to depict Iranian women without a hijab out of caution. Therefore: Heike with the women-life-freedom-chain

Headgear

The opinion in the Western media doesn't seem to be entirely in line with our experiences. There are many self-confident, unveiled and cheerful women. In some regions, women wear more traditional clothing such as hijāb (headscarf) and some even wear the chador (cloak wrapped around the head and body). In some regions and in many cities (e.g. in Shiraz or on the island of Queshm), we often see women without a hijāb. Or with the headscarf folded back, which is only placed over the back of the head when entering public buildings or offices, etc.

Otherwise, the rule is to cover your hair as soon as men are around. We see many women wearing baseball caps, caps, straw hats or a kind of scarf that is simply wrapped casually over the back of their heads. There is no sign of religious veiling among these women.

In conversations, we keep hearing that the hijāb will probably not be enforced. However, we also hear that the morality police are constantly carrying out checks.

As a tourist, I am often asked by women to take off my headscarf. I do this in closed spaces such as small restaurants with séparées or with families, but not in public. Not because I want to. It's because I think that I already have more rights as a tourist, and I don't need to demonstrate that by not wearing a headscarf.

The hijab is also compulsory in the car for women and girls aged 9 and over. If one of the many, many cameras identifies a woman without a headscarf, a text message is sent to the vehicle owner and, according to the story, the car is confiscated on the third offence. (We have heard this before, but have never met anyone who has had this happen to them).

So even at home, I almost always sit in my Felix with a cloth or close all the windows from the inside in the middle of the day.

Clothes

Despite all the rules: Iranian women are very modern, very stylish and pay a lot of attention to their appearance. Most of the time, everything goes together and every item of clothing has a matching scarf, bag and I don't know what else. (Sometimes I feel very rudimentary and rather practical with my minimalist wardrobe).

We women should cover our arms and legs completely. However, men are often seen in T-shirts, only wearing shorts on the beach. Otherwise, men and women always wear long trousers and women also wear ankle-length skirts. It is also compulsory for women to wear a long top to cover their buttocks. Many wear a kind of long blouse, waistcoat or coat. I didn't buy anything like that separately. I had two long linen blouses with me, which I wore when we were invited to religious families or had to go to offices, for example when renewing our visa or at the border.

Three-quarter sleeves are ok in summer, sandals or flip-flops are also acceptable.

In some mosques and also in state institutions such as the consulate, there are chadors on loan that you have to wear. That's always funny because you don't expect to see women who are 1.81 metres tall. But without a chador you are refused entry. In Yazd, we met a young Iranian woman who refused and then demonstratively strutted into the nearest café with her hair down. Chapeau!

Swimwear

There are apparently gender-segregated areas where women are allowed to swim in a bikini. Otherwise, it's full gear. I've been in the sea twice wearing long leggings, a long shirt and a turban. I didn't enjoy it. Once we were alone on the beach and just swam like that. But there's always the worry that there might be someone on the beach who doesn't approve when you come out.

The men bathe in swimming trunks. With bare legs, bare bellies, bare shoulders, uncovered heads. Everywhere.

Women usually stand fully clothed with their feet in the water at the edge.

Women travelling alone

I can't say much about it, but when I've been somewhere alone (shopping, drinking coffee or something), I'm immediately asked about my husband, my father and my children. There are hardly any women travelling alone. In a hotel, one of the employees sits down with me so that I don't have to sit there alone. I didn't realise it at first.

We hear that women need their husband's or father's permission when travelling. We can't confirm that because no one has ever asked me. For one thing, I'm not travelling alone and for another, different rules apply to foreign women.

Contact us

People usually say that you should avoid eye contact with men. I didn't feel that way. All the men were very polite and friendly and our smiles were always returned. But here too: There are always two of us, of course.

Only men shake hands with each other, we women put our hand on our heart and the men do the same and both make a slight bow. We know this from many countries and it suits me. But when we were invited to families, we usually gave a warm hug to say goodbye.

Some men also shake my hand directly. We sense that they don't want to support this gender segregation (anymore) either.

And here, too, we would like to emphasise that both men and women are very considerate, polite and have very good "manners", if the word manners is still contemporary.

Menstrual hygiene

I haven't seen tampons anywhere, pads everywhere. I haven't heard anything about menstrual cups here. So if you want to use your usual products, you should bring them with you from home for the duration of your trip.

City buses

In cities like Tabriz, we have discovered gender segregation: men get on at the front, women at the back. You can see each other, but you are separated by a kind of half-height grid. I have to remember that Montgomery Bus Boycott think. We didn't use the metro or intercity buses, and men and women sit together on ferries.

Teahouses

Often only men can be found in the tea rooms and small restaurants. Women seem to drink tea at home. If we want to take a break, we go in anyway and are of course immediately recognised as strangers and always treated very kindly. We see a lot more couples and families in restaurants, significantly more than in Turkey, for example.

Legal and social challenges facing women

First of all, two pieces of information:

• Because of the gender divide, men also live under enormous pressure. We have heard this time and time again. But I don't want to write anything about that in this article - it belongs to women!
• I have researched the following lines, the sources are at the end. We have experienced the above ourselves and heard about it from our travelling friends and acquaintances.

Under the application of Sharia law, women in Iran experience a far-reaching discriminationwhich violates international human rights treaties. Women are severely disadvantaged in numerous legal areas, including witness rights, marriage, divorce and custody rights. For example, a woman's testimony in court is only worth half as much as a man's, and in some cases female witnesses are not even admitted.

One particularly serious aspect is the so-called right of retaliation, according to which women's lives and health are considered to be only half as valuable. Furthermore, husbands in Iran have the right to sexual availability of their wives, which even includes the use of violence, as marital rape is not considered a criminal offence. Domestic violence by the husband is largely tolerated and in some cases even legally authorised.

Our comment: we have spoken to many couples about this: Many women and also men now see it differently and live according to an equal sense of morality. So here the population is "further ahead" than the law.

In the area of divorce law, men enjoy far-reaching privileges, while women have to fulfil strict burdens of proof. Women also face major challenges when it comes to dealing with domestic violence, as this is often not recognised as sufficient grounds for divorce. To make matters worse, "honour killings" within the family remain largely unpunished in Iran and women are not allowed to travel without their husband's consent.

Lesbian women must also exercise extreme caution, as homosexuality is illegal and punishable by law in Iran. Foreign women travellers often pretend to be sisters.

A compulsory headscarf and additional dress codes are strictly monitored and enforced by the morality police. Despite this, many women, especially in large cities, show their resistance by circumventing the regulations, for example by wearing loose headscarves or tighter coats. Protests against these rigid rules are frequent, but are suppressed. Observers report an intensification of repression against women since 2014, including acid attacks on those who allegedly do not dress correctly.

The Islamic Republic is also cracking down on activists in the women's movement. One prominent example is the lawyer Nasrin Sotudeh, who was sentenced to prison for not wearing a headscarf in a video message. Other repressive measures include discriminatory draft laws, such as the ban on contraception and discrimination in the labour market for childless women, which is part of the plan to double the population.

Another drastic example of the restriction of women's rights is the regulation on leaving the country. Until recently, Iranian women could not obtain a passport without the consent of their husband or guardian. This became particularly well known in cases such as that of Paralympic archer Zahra Nemati and footballer Niloufar Ardalan, whose husbands tried to block their participation in international competitions. A new law passed in 2017 now allows the authorities, rather than husbands, to decide whether women should leave the country for sporting, academic or cultural events, pilgrimages or medical treatment.

Sources

(We are aware that we are only quoting Western sources here and are thus also measuring a foreign culture by our standards):

• https://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/apuz/31568/frauenrechte-in-iran/
• https://krautreporter.de/nachrichten-erklart/4622-warum-ich-als-frau-in-iran-nicht-demonstriere#lesen
• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frauenrechte_im_Iran
• https://www.heise.de/news/RIPE-79-Vom-IT-Studium-und-umgekehrten-Geschlechterverhaeltnissen-4561784.html
• https://www.planet-wissen.de/kultur/religion/islam/pwiedierollederfrauimislam100.html#Hausarrest_ab_der_Pubertaet

Photo: I deliberately decided against the cliché photo of a woman wearing a chador. And I don't want to depict Iranian women without a hijab out of caution.

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Merci for "travelling with us

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Date: 24 November 2024 4 pm (doors open at 3 pm)
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