The Hindu Business Line : `No' to <I>chador </I>

Young women in Iran seem to have taken to the trend of wearing tight clothes to "sex up their image" in a big way, and believe that doing so has a positive impact on their personality. But this hasn't gone down well with the conservatives and radical clerics. "They are supposed to cover their heads, which they do, but their dresses are getting tighter with slits running up the hips and this is not our tradition or culture," complained 60-year-old Mohammed Zarghami.

Young women, in particular, are giving up the traditional loose-fitting chador, cloak or an overcoat — `manteau'. One can see many university students and working women on streets, buses and metro trains defying the strict dress code, though all of them have their headscarf in place, partially exposing their hair. When we wondered whether they weren't scared of getting imprisoned, a woman who escorted us during our sight-seeing tour laughed it off saying: "Those days are gone". Yet she did not want her name to be quoted. "We still cover our heads," she said, when we pointed out at her overcoat and scarf. "This is freezing cold and I can't do away with the overcoat."

Talking to these women one got the impression that young women in Iran were no more scared of the 74 lashings (no one could explain how this figure was arrived at) that they would have been sentenced to for violating the dress code a decade ago. A journalist even removed her headscarf, once she got into our car, with total contempt for "things imposed". "Forget the lashing, our young women are more interested in dating," she joked.

She wasn't off the mark... for, girls and boys, with their hands clasped, were seen walking leisurely at the Iman Khomeni subway railway station in the heart of Tehran. These scenes were unusual a few years ago. "You can't suppress these young people who constitute 50 per cent of our population," said a professor, who has three daughters.

Well, I even came across a couple kissing during lunch hour at a traditional Iranian restaurant. They did not care to stop me from taking a picture, but requested not to publish it anywhere.

Saman Amjadi, a geology student who believes that Iranian women deserve more freedom and fashionable clothes, dismissed the veil or chador, supposed to be shapeless, as something "for grannies". "We do not like the western style of dressing either. We wish to dress fashionably yet modestly," said some Tehran University students.

That some of them wore tighter versions of black or blue salwar-kameez reflected their measured defiance. These dresses are spectacularly displayed in a huge market, called `Bazaar', in downtown Tehran. "We get these dresses from India, particularly Mumbai," said Samin, a third-year graduate student. "For me, these are non-issues. What we need is more freedom, especially on the job and career fronts," said her friend, Assal Vagiri. She added that more jobs, considered to be the men's preserve, should be thrown open to women as well.

Career means more to these women than marriage. "The literacy rate of women in Iran is much higher than men. Marriages will happen eventually and we don't mind waiting for a long period. What is important is whether we can do well on the career front," said Samira Ataee, who does translation work from Farsi to English and vice-versa for different organisations. "Forget about the statistics. You can easily see more number of women in college or university campuses than boys," said Maryam Salehi, who gives creative inputs to event management companies.

All these women accept that things have improved dramatically over the last few years. The situation isn't "all that bad" as made out in the western world, they claim.

"The challenge for our society is to get out of the traditional mindset about what women should or should not do," said Shahidi Teshti, a student. "Girls love to study and work; and this is an encouraging sign. Our society needs to cash in on these positive trends by creating a conducive environment," she added.

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