Iran arrests 300 ‘insufficiently veiled’ women

updated 6:36 p.m. ET April 23, 2007

TEHRAN, Iran - With the arrival of spring, Iranian police have launched a crackdown against women accused of not covering up enough, arresting nearly 300 women, some for wearing too tight an overcoat or letting too much hair peek out from under their veil, authorities said Monday.

The campaign in the streets of major cities was the toughest such crackdown in nearly two decades, raising fears that hard-liner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intends to re-impose the tough Islamic Revolution-era constraints on women's dress that loosened in past years.

The move highlighted the new boldness among hard-liners in Ahmadinejad's government, which has used mounting Western pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program and Iraq as a pretext to put down internal dissent.

But it could bring a backlash at a time when many Iranians resent Ahmadinejad for failing to boost the faltering economy or halt spiraling prices and blame him for isolating Iran with his fiery rhetoric. The two-day-old crackdown was already angering moderates.

"What they do is really insulting. You simply can't tell people what to wear. They don't understand that use of force only brings hatred toward them, not love," said Elham Mohammadi, a 23-year-old female student.

Her hair was hardly hidden by her white-and-orange headscarf — an infraction that could bring police attention. Police could be seen Monday stopping and giving warnings to other women who were showing too much hair or even wearing too colorful a headscarf.

Looser dress codes are one of the few surviving gains from the era of Ahmadinejad's predecessor, reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who was in power from 1997 to 2005.

During that time, many women, particularly in cities, shed the dress code imposed after the 1979 revolution — veils completely covering the hair and heavy coats or the black or gray head-to-toe chador hiding the shape of the body.

Now it is common to see women in loose headscarves — some as narrow as a ribbon — that show much of their hair and short, colorful, form-fitting jackets that stop at the knee — or even higher — showing jeans underneath. Even under Ahmadinejad in the past two years, women can be seen in pants that leave the bottom of their calves bare.

Any of those styles could bring warnings or detention from the anti-vice police in the current sweep, which began Saturday.

Women among anti-vice police
Anti-vice police — many of them women — have been stopping women in the streets of the capital and other cities if they deem their dress is "un-Islamic."

So far, 278 women have been detained, 231 of whom were released after they signed papers promising they won't appear "inadequately dressed in public," police spokesman Col. Mahi Ahmadi told The Associated Press Monday.

MORE FROM MIDEAST & N. AFRICA

Mideast & N. Africa Section Front

Libya begins payments for terrorism victims U.S. says Syria frees 2 Americans Israelis looking for stronger U.S. leadership Newsweek: U.S. setbacks on Iran arms sales FBI: Tapeproof American al-Qaida member alive Egyptians looking for 'good side' of America Mideast & N. Africa Section Front   Add Mideast & N. Africa headlines to your news reader: