Iran International
Hijab remains at the heart of Iranian politics 85 years after Reza Shah Pahlavi's decree of January 8, 1936 outlawing traditional Islamic veils and scarves.
The founder of the Pahlavi dynasty banned women from wearing both traditional Islamic veils covering the whole body (chador) and headscarves. The shah had previously spent several years promoting "kashf-e hejab,” or unveiling, through requiring female teachers and students to attend school unveiled.
The shah regarded Iranian hijab and traditional costumes as a sign of ‘backwardness,’ and tried also to compel men to wear what he regarded as ‘western’ costumes and hats.
With the ban on hijab, many women stayed inside their homes for years or left home only in the dark or hidden inside carriages to avoid confrontation with the police who would if necessary use force to unveil them. Even older Christian and Jewish women found the ban on headscarves hard to comply with.
The ban was declared at the graduation ceremony of Tehran teacher's college, at which the queen and the shah’s two daughters appeared in public unveiled in Western attire. In a speech at the ceremony, the shah said Iranian women “should stand out in society the same way as they stand out at their homes.”
The religious establishment which saw, and still sees, the unveiling of women as a blow to its values and power, strongly opposed the decree and Reza Shah's other attempts at modernization.
It was "one of the huge crimes" of the Pahlavi dynasty aimed at destroying and modesty in Iran,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a speech on January 7, 2016. "It was meant to get people engrossed in their very powerful sexual desires so that they would abandon everything else."
Implementation of the ban eased, and many women went back to traditional ways of dressing when Reza Shah went into exile in 1941 due to his German sympathies and under British pressure for the succession of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
In the last few years before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, wearing headscarves became popular among those in the younger generation who often saw it as a means to express their political opposition to the monarchy and its westernization of the Iranian society.
In the early days of the Revolution, some women who did not cover their hair were prevented from entering government offices, banks, and other public areas. The law requiring women to cover hair heads and wear long, loose-fitting coats in public was passed in 1983 and those who defy it, even inside their cars risk face fines or prison and lashing. Some anti-hijab activists have been jailed.
A report by the parliament's research center in 2018 said the number of Iranians who believed in mandatory hijab had waned. According to the report those who considered the hijab a value that could be stipulated in law had fallen from 85 percent in the early 1980s to around 35 percent.
A photo report headlined "The Night Bus" published by the Iranian Students News Agency(ISNA) has heightened the issue of homeless people sleeping on Tehran buses.
Most are not drug addicts, the report said Saturday, and were people who work but cannot afford the cheapest guesthouses as accommodation. The night bus sleepers told ISNA that buses offered the chance for a few hours’ secure sleep away from shelters they found unsanitary and unsafe. Some said they always sleep in buses.
Ahmad Alavi, a member of Tehran City Council, told ISNA Sunday that municipality officials were aware that night bus sleepers were different from the “typical” homeless who were often addicted to drugs and frequented homeless shelters.
Social media activists responded to the report by suggesting mosques should open their doors for rough sleepers on cold winter nights, while hardliners who control the government and religious institutions opposed the idea on grounds that mosques should be used strictly for religious purposes. Mosques were not "dormitories," tweeted Abdollah Ganji, editor-in-chief of Javan newspaper, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard.
In response, social media users said mosques are being used for state propaganda and housing the Basij, the paramilitary arm of the Revolutionary Guards, and even for economic activities such as cryptocurrency mining which is much cheaply done in mosques due to the special rates they pay for electricity.
There are around 2,000 mosques in Tehran alone. According to Tehran Municipality, Tehran had around 130,000 homeless last year while shelters could only accommodate around 3,000.
Adding to the media hubbub, Mehdi Chamran, conservative chairman of Tehran City Council, said Tuesday he had asked the mayor, Alireza Zakani, to stop people sleeping on buses and to find other accommodation. He said foreign media running the story had “forgotten how garbage scavengers live in London or other places."
Living costs, particularly housing, have risen sharply in Tehran, which according to the Economist's 2021 index of worldwide cost of living jumped from 106th in 2019 to 29th in 2021. The EIU attributed the rise to “continued supply-side constraints, goods shortages and rising import prices following the reimposition of US sanctions.” The EIU ranked Tel Aviv as the most expensive city in the world, followed by Paris.
According to a report by EcoIraneconomic website published January 3, the index for ‘misery’ – adding the unemployment rate to inflation – rose 20 points to 55 points in the twelve months leading to September 2021.
The increase results entirely from rising inflation as government figures, on which the EcoIran report was based, show a fall in unemployment from around 12 percent in summer 2020 to 9.6 percent in 2021.Economists say the figuredoes not include those losing work during the pandemic, and that the government-run Iran Statistical Center considers anyone who has worked for at least one hour a week to be employed. According to ISC,unemployment is at the lowest levelsince 1996, with the center highlighting “the spread of the coronavirus disease which has caused many young adults to leave the labor market.”
The Washington-based conservative Cato Institute, committed to ‘libertarian’ economics, ranked Iran 8th in the world in its Hanke's 2020 Annual Misery Index, with Venezuela as the world’s most miserable country.