Attire, opinions of Iranian dress code vary among women and regions

TEHRAN -- The sign at Imam Khomeini International Airport urges "Respected Ladies: Please Observe Islamic Dress Code."

Not that they have a choice: Under Iranian law imposed after the Islamic revolution, all women — visitors included — must cover their heads and dress modestly.

Officially, that means either a full-length chador (a shapeless, tentlike cloth, usually black) or a headscarf, trousers and long-sleeved, lightweight coat called a manteau. But as foreign tourists chafing beneath their unaccustomed garb discover, the country's shifting interpretations of acceptable attire illustrate the complex realities of Iranian women themselves.

On the streets of modern neighborhoods in cities such as Tehran and Shiraz, young fashionistas wear thigh-high, figure-hugging manteaus, their peroxided tresses spilling out of skimpy silk scarves, while visitors push the envelope with ball caps and gauzy Indian tunics.

Yet elsewhere, particularly in conservative Mashhad and Yazd, the black chador and maqna-e (a nunlike, one-piece garment that covers the head and shoulders) are ubiquitous. According to recent news reports, Iran's "morality police" have stepped up their sweeps, shutting down stores that sell provocative manteaus and detaining women who have committed such offenses as wearing bright nail polish. A few weeks ago, Iranian star Golshifteh Farahani ignited a heated controversy when she attended the New York premiere for her new Ridley Scott movie, Body of Lies, with bare head and arms.

In the ladies' room of a restaurant in Isfahan, a treasure-trove of Persian architecture that's a top draw for Iranian and foreign visitors, a trio of drop-dead-gorgeous women shed their scarves and snap photos of one another. When they meet an American, they do a double take and ask why in the world she came.

"How can you put up with this?" they say, pointing to their temporarily discarded headgear. (Like other Iranians, they would not give their names for fear of reprisal.) "We hate it."