Hardline fears over 'proper' attire in Iran

Morals police and Islamic vigilantes have launched a fierce crackdown on "improper dress", confiscating tight coats and cropped trousers from fashionable shopping centres and detaining scores of women every day for flouting the strict Islamic dress code.

The code, or hejab in Persian, was imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution and requires women to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures.

Roshanak, 27, was arrested by police and held for two days when her scarf slipped off while parking her car.

"My husband had to pay ten million rials (625) to free me and I am pending trial. My lawyer said I may be lashed as well."

While the crackdown on improper hejab is not new - enforcement typically peaks in the summer as soaring temperatures prompt many women to test the boundaries of the law - the level of debate accompanying it is unprecedented.

According to local media, the interior ministry is drafting new guidelines on the subject to clarify what can and cannot be worn.

For many, ruling on the acceptable length of women’s coats or whether sandals and earrings are banned imperils the tiny sartorial freedoms that women have gained in recent years.

"The way people dress is a matter for individuals to decide ... the government cannot approve a bill like this," the reformist Sharq newspaper said in an editorial.

But many clerics, alarmed by the growing number of women who have cast aside the traditional head-to-toe black chador in favour of colourful scarves, tight coats and calf-length capri trousers, think that the proposed bill has come not a moment too soon.

"Some women appear in the streets half a millimetre from breaking the Islamic dress code," said a hardline cleric, Ahmad Khatami. "It is a very dangerous trend."

One senior cleric proposed an anti-vice ministry, similar to that used by the Taleban to force Afghan women to cover up and men to grow beards.

A hardline vigilante group has blamed bad observance of hejab for rising rape cases, and urged police to stamp it out.

Political analysts say the issue could be a litmus test for the future of social freedoms, particularly now that Islamic conservatives have all but ousted reformists from power.

The pro-reform president, Mohammad Khatami, credited with encouraging more relaxed enforcement of rules, such as hejab, since his 1997 election, is serving out his last year in office. His allies lost their parliamentary majority to conservatives in a February vote which was marred by the mass disqualification of reformists.

"The moderates in the conservative camp know that a severe crackdown on social issues would cause a backlash from people, but the traditionalists want to make an issue out of hejab," said one political analyst, Hossein Rassam.

Reflecting divisions on how to treat the issue, many of the dissenting voices against stricter dress codes come from within the Islamic conservative camp.

"Any policy for cracking down on those who violate hejab which is imposed by the state will fail," the conservative Resalat newspaper said in an editorial comment.

Even the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, normally a proponent of strict adherence to Islamic values, sounded a flexible note in a key speech last week.

"Cultural mimicry is a big danger, but don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to fashion, variety and innovation," he said.