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May 1, 2006
Iran: Islamist Leader Plans To Flood Market With Muslim Tent-Costumes
The increasingly unhinged president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has perhaps been stung by the Ayatollahs' reactions to his recent proposals to allow women into football (soccer) stadiums. We mentioned on Friday April 27 that his decision to liberalise the veto on women watching soccer (which has existed since 1979) was harshly criticised by the clergy. Ahmadinejad is only the president, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the Supreme Leader in the Islamic theocracy of Iran.
Today, CNN reports on the national unease which has followed the president's ruling and the clerical carping. One cleric, Fazel Lankarani, even went as far as to issue a fatwa against women attending stadiums.
Mohammad Aliabadi, head of the Physical Education Organization (PEO), announced a qualification to the liberalising of women's entry, saying: "The ban on single women still exists and we won't allow single women to attend any games. Only women who come with their families will be allowed in."
On March 1st, 50 women who tried to enter Tehran's Azadi (freedom) stadium to see Iran play Costa Rica were forcibly barred entry. Mahboubeh Abbass-Gholizadeh, who had her leg broken in the incident, regards the ruling as a "little victory for the women's movement."
While it is unclear if Ahmadinejad will force the issue of women entering such stadiums, and with the issue dividing public and religious opinion, he appears to have seized on a new initiative to please the Ayatollahs. After all, without their patronage, he has no mandate to rule, despite Iran's sham democracy.
According to today's Middle East Times, Ahmadinejad has decided to reinforce his credentials as a true Islamist by repressing women's freedoms to dress.
It seems that, despite rulings forcing women to keep their hair covered, markets in Iran are still selling decadent tarty costumes, influenced by the evil and immoral West.
So the enterprising chauvinist has decided on a ploy to make it easier for women to dress like black tents, by flooding the market with oppressive women's costumes, which have about as much fashion value as a torn shroud.
Gholam Hossein Elham, a government spokesman, told reporters that he would take on the retail industry that is "filled with clothes that do not conform, and where women have trouble buying proper outfits and can't find anything but cheap and rather inappropriate clothes."
"We have a problem..." he said, but said the answer was to be found through "cultural work and not the use of force."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at May 1, 2006 2:51 PM
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