This is a very intense and sensitive topic, but I would like to talk about it.

In 2018 I travelled to Iran, I was aware about the clothing restrictions in the place, but never imagined it would be so strict. I had to do special shopping for visiting this place since most of my clothes are short sleeves or tight fit. I was informed that my clothing should not be very body hugging tight, it should be full sleeves and legs covered and full head covered. I was feeling a lot of burden thinking of it, because when you travel you want to be light and easy going and not piled up with layers of clothing from head to toe. But anyways this place was on my list to travel so I went ahead with all of it.

The moment we landed even before we exited the aircraft we were informed that we had to cover our head. This was only for the females, the men did not have any restrictions. I did not imagine that the fiasco would start right from the aircraft itself. Anyways there was no choice, but covering up head to toe was making me feel suffocated. I am not used to it, and my general clothing is mostly sleeveless so all the more I was feeling uncomfortable.

The most tedious to manage was the head scarf because it would keep slipping all the time, and there were times when we were sitting in the hotel lobby and if my head scarf would slip down even for few seconds someone from the hotel staff would come and point out to me. That was the most annoying part.

A picture taken at Mount Damavand

I was feeling sad that the place is so beautiful but the lifestyle is so conservative and rigid that it makes so difficult for one to live here or even to visit here. There I met one lady who works for my husband's office based in Iran, and were out for coffee. She seemed to be a very modern girl with open views and I was speaking to her about why is there no objection from the people on all of this madness. She mentioned that the police is very strict there and they would just beat up people or even kill them for not following rules. It was very shocking to hear. She mentioned that couple of times she has walked down the street without her head scarf and police had chased her, and she has managed to escape by running away fast from them.

A lot of youngsters condemn to these laws but it is a police start with dictatorship and people cannot raise their voice. Social media is banned there, we had to use vpn to connect to our social media accounts. Thank god that facility is there and they do not yet have control over it. The place is over conservative and has some most stringent and rigid rules in the name of religion.

I too live in a Country with Islamic roots here in Oman, but there are no such restrictions in our Country. The local women do wear their Burqah but again it's not so stringent like what I experienced in Iran. For expat women, we are free to wear what we want and there are no restrictions of any nature.

A picture taken with the local ladies in Yazd

Life for women is very conservative and there are different rules for man and woman which is a clear hypocrisy of the society there. It is sad to see that women in some parts of the world are still suffering under the male dominance in the name of religion. What has happened is very shocking and disgusting. Someone has to lose their life over a religious norm which is not even actually a religious norm but a country imposed norm is inhuman and complete violation of human rights.

A big time revolution from the people living there itself is needed if the scenes have to be changed. The need to end the dictatorship rule by uniting and standing up against it strongly. Iran was never a place like this. The women there were modern and progressive until the 1979 where a conservative revolution took place and that changed the face of life for Iranian women.

I so loved the place when I visited but I felt sad for their ways and culture.

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