Iran bans "tight jeans", tattoos at some universities
Jan 10 - Iran has enforced a stricter Islamic dress code at a
number of universities including a ban on female students wearing
long nails, bright clothes and tattoos, a local news agency
reported on Monday.
The semi-official
Fars news agency published a list of universities around Iran that
were given a note outlining the code but did not say on what basis
they were selected.
The new rules ban
women from "wearing caps or hats without scarves, tight and short
jeans, and body piercing", except earrings, Fars
said.
It said tattoos,
long nails, tooth gems, tight overcoats, and bright clothes were
also banned.
Iran has been
waging a country-wide campaign against Western cultural influences.
Under Islamic law imposed after the 1979 revolution, women have to
cover their hair in public and wear long, loose-fitting
clothes.
The new code also
bans male students from dying their hair, plucking eyebrows,
wearing tight clothes, shirts with "very short sleeves" and
jewellery, Fars said.
The authorities
usually intensify efforts ahead of hot summer months when women
tend to wear lighter clothes and brightly coloured scarves, often
pushed back to expose hair.
In recent years
crackdowns have extended into winter fashion as well including a
push against women's trousers seen as too tight, as well as men
with spiky "Western-style" hairstyles.
Hardliners have
pressed for tighter controls on "immoral behaviour" since President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005 promising a return to the
values of the revolution.
Young women,
particularly in wealthier urban areas, often challenge limitations
by wearing tight clothes and colourful headscarves that barely
cover their hair. The rules remain less challenged in poor suburbs
and rural regions.
(Writing by Ramin Mostafavi, Editing by Zahra Hosseinian and Maria
Golovnina)