Sharia priorities. “Women, tie-sellers targeted in Iran clothing crackdown,” from AFP, May 30 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Police shut down 80 booths at international trade fair in Tehran shut down because female attendants ‘not properly observing the hijab;’ police chief says fresh crackdown launched to enforce an ban on sale of ties
Female booth attendants at an international trade fair and shops selling men’s ties have become targets in a strict crackdown by Tehran police on clothing deemed un-Islamic, Iranian media reported on Wednesday.
Women “not properly observing the hijab,” or the Islamic headscarf, as they staffed stands at an international food exhibition, prompted police to shut down 80 of the booths, Iranian deputy police chief Ahmad Reza Radan was quoted as saying in the Mardomsalari newspaper.
“The organizers of the fair must make certain that women are properly dressed, or else police will have to shut it down,” he said. Radan said the crackdown will soon expand to other Iranian cities.
His boss, police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moqadam, said the female attendants had been warned, “but they did not take it seriously — that is why we shut them (the booths) down.”
It was not known if the women were fined or arrested, as often happens for such offences, nor was it known if any foreigners were among them.
The fair, which wrapped up on Wednesday, hosted exhibitions by companies from several countries, including Austria, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, South Korea, Spain and Turkey.
According to Mardomsalari and other media, police have also launched a fresh campaign to enforce an often-ignored ban on the sale of ties — apparel deemed by regime hardliners as a symbol of Western cultural influence rejected since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
“We had to remove all ties from our shop” on the orders of Tehran’s morality police, an unnamed shopkeeper told the ISNA news agency….