Iranian Women Warned About Wearing Chador

Iranian Women Warned About Wearing Chador
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Iranian women warned about wearing chador

By Mehrnaz Samimi for Al-Monitor, On Twitter:@MehrnazSamimi
Published on Jan.21st, 2014

On Jan. 7, 1936, Iran's then-ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi unveiled women by force as part of his clash with the clergy. On the anniversary of this significant event, influential conservative clergyman Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani issued a lengthy statement in the form of a news release titled "Warning Iranian Women," in which he expressed disappointment in women who opt to dress more fashionably and revealingly. He referred to the "hip" version of Iranian women's wear as "covering skin and cand concealing private parts as it should, but [falling] short of true coverage ... and on the verge of being defined as haram"...

I interviewed Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, a reformist clergyman and former Iranian vice president who lives in Tehran, and asked his take on the chador, Ayatollah Safi's comments and his religious interpretation. Abtahi told Al-Monitor, "From an Islamic standpoint, we as members of the clergy are to preach the right [path]. That's all. We are not to pursue...

Read the complete story on Al-Monitor's Iran Pulse:

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot