Stones of a Prescribed Weight

As the plane banks for its final approach to Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, the women aboard transform themselves.  Every trace of makeup has been carefully wiped away during visits to the toilet. Head scarves are tightened along with seat belts. While they may have boarded as Asian beauties, each and every one is a picture of Muslim modesty in the line for the passport check to enter the Islamic Republic.

            Of all the changes that have swept Iran during the more than three decades since the fall of the shah, those that have affected women are the most visible symbols of the regime that came to power. The transformation was both complete and abrupt, considering that the tradition of hejab – Islamic covering for women – had all but died out in Iran, at least for the urban majority, at the time of the revolution.

            A glance through almost any middle class family photo album reveals all the familiar snaps. There are wedding days with brides in white, girls in bathing suits at the beach and lovers holding hands.  Women appear in sun dresses, tennis shorts and the full range of female hair styles.

            Leaf further back in time and it is obvious that the ‘60s hit Iran with many of the same phenomena that Europe and North America experienced. Adolescent boys sported long hair and bell-bottoms. Girls wore mini-dresses. It is only when one gets back to the faded, yellow photographs of grandparents and great-grandparents that one begins to see head coverings on the women.

            The effects of rapid industrialization and urbanization on the country, together with a 1934 ban on the chador by Reza Shah, the last shah’s father, had removed the custom from all but the most traditional sectors of society. Indeed, through most of the ‘60s and ‘70s, particularly in the middle-class areas of Tehran, while women covered to attend the mosque, it was the prostitutes who habitually wore the chador, not for religious reasons, but to cover the skimpy costumes of their trade.

            During the final days of the monarchy, however, wearing a head scarf became a symbol of political protest. Because there was such widespread discontent and because Ayatollah Khomeini, a religious man, was able to focus this discontent, women took to wearing the scarf during the street demonstrations out of respect for the perceived spiritual aspects of the uprising.

            While a sizable minority of women embraced this return to traditional values with enthusiasm, many soon found themselves trapped unwillingly behind the veil. As radical fundamentalists hijacked what had started as essentially a middle class revolution, patrols of Revolutionary Guards appeared on the streets, meting out instant justice to those who failed to comply with the new moral order.

            Although enforcement is extremely haphazard, the penalties for transgression are severe. From time to time, newspapers publish a menu of torments – 70 lashes for lipstick, 40 lashes for eye makeup or nail polish.

            Those caught in more serious violations of the moral code, prostitutes, for example, or even just unlucky lovers, are in deep trouble. They are buried up to the neck in sand with their head covered. A hundred local people, marshaled by the religious authorities, are then gathered in a circle around them and throw stones of a prescribed weight.