...The [Iranian] police last week launched what was termed a "winter" crackdown on unIslamic dressing, to follow an unusually vigorous summer drive against women whose clothing was deemed overly flimsy.AKI adds:Tehran police chief Ahmad Reza Radan said women who wear high boots with their trousers tucked-in would be targeted by the moral police, as well as those who sport hats instead of headscarves and short tight winter coats.
Radan had described such fashions as an example of "Tabarroj", an Islamic term which means revealing one's beauty and bodily contours to unrelated men.
In the past years, it has become fashionable for liberal Iranian women to wear high boots over their trousers during the cold winter months.
"Wearing boots over trousers, according to Sharia (Islamic law), is tabarroj and an example of bad dressing, which will be confronted," Radan said, cited by the ISNA news agency.
The drive has been criticised by some moderates but the police have insisted the crackdown is popular with the public and necessary to improve security in society.
"I am sorry that you are concerned about the boots of a few rich women," was the response of hardline femmale MP Eshrat Shaegh, referring to the media interest in the ban.
"I am worried about women who do not have meat on their tables and no clothes on their children," she said.
"If boots are not covered by pants that fall to the ankles, they show the female shape and that is therefore in contradiction with Islamic dress code," said Radan.That's a lot of men to spend their time discussing women's boots. Sounds like an episode of Queer Eye.
Iranian women can no longer leave home with their pants pushed inside their boots and they can no longer wear hats without a veil.
"A hat is not an adequate substitute for a veil or a hijab," he said. " If someone really wants to wear a hat, they can put it on the veil."
Generale Radan said decision to apply the Islamic code had come from a committee composed of the Revolutionary Guard, the judiciary, police and officials from the intelligence ministry and the ministry of culture and Islamic orientation.