In the ’70s, Iranian women did not wear a chador, they had their bodies uncovered and chose heavy makeup. At least this is what is depicted on some fashion photos of an Iranian magazine that went public.
Many of those women remain stylish even today. But compared to the Iranian fashion of the ’70s, everything is changed nowadays. Then, women did not cover their bodies.They wouldn’t mind showing their legs. Their backs. Their neckline. They posed freely to the camera. They used to smile, feeling carefree. They were influenced by the western lifestyle and they were not afraid to show it, even in the way they were dressed.
What has changed ever since? How can this shift in the dress code of Iranian women be explained? Why did the chador (the cloak that is worn in public over their clothes, in order to cover their face and their body) enter their lives so violently? The answer lies in the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which ended with the creation of the first Islamic state in the world by Ruhollah Khomeini, whose governance – inextricably intertwined with the transformation of Iran into a theocratic Islamic state, contributed to worsen the relations with the Western world and degraded the role of women in today’s Iran.
In the video below, you can see how much women’s fashion has changed there, the last 100 years:
