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New Attitudes Color Iranian Society, Culture by Barbara Slavin (USA Today)
Posted by Ed Miller
TEHRAN, Iran — In a city that only a few years ago was almost monochromatic — full of women draped head to toe in black — women and girls this winter are sporting pink coats, pink sweaters, pink head scarves, shoes and bags.
Iran’s Islamic rulers appear to have given up trying to make women observe more than the letter of the hijab, the Koran’s admonition that Muslim women outside their homes should cover everything but their faces, hands and feet. The change has been gradual, but this year coats have gotten shorter, brighter and tighter, heels higher and scarves have slipped farther back to reveal most of women’s hair.
Iran’s “pink revolution” is a silent fashion statement that sends a powerful message. Unable to act overtly against the rigid Islamism that has shaped Iranian political and cultural life since the U.S.-backed shah was overthrown in 1979, many Iranians express their contempt for the government through their clothing.
For women, that means the sexiest, most fashionable attire possible while still covering the requisite body parts. For men, dissatisfaction takes the form of clean shaves — Islam encourages beards — publicly shaking hands with unrelated women and wearing jeans and long hair.
“The more you look at the people in the streets, they don’t look like Iranians any more,” says Goli Emami, a translator of English books into the Iranian language Farsi.
Yet, the country has changed in ways that have contradicted the Islamic tenets on which the revolution was based. For every weblog shut down, two more seem to emerge. New, reform-leaning newspapers regularly challenge government policies. Reformist politicians are hoping for a comeback. And in a society where more than half the population is under the age of 30, young Iranians are staging a non-violent but potent counterrevolution not only through fashion, but also with their music and relations between the sexes that defy the strict Islamism dictated by the ruling mullahs.
The evidence of that change is obvious to anyone walking on Tehran’s streets. “Two years ago, we all wore red. This year, we’re wearing pink, and next year, who knows?” says Farzaneh Samadian, 21, a computer software engineer whose pink and navy scarf is barely attached to her head. “We love freedom.”