Just saw this article from Iranian web site..the happenings of Tehran in the summer, and was wondering how these enforcers of modesty would feel if they were all of a sudden transplanted to one of the South Florida Beaches, in fact specifically "Lauderdale by the Sea", where I spent a few hours over the weekend, enjoying the water, nice and blue, warm, , sand, white, soft, warm, clean and of course "girl watching " as the younger ones frolicked and sunbathed in their kind of skimpy bathing attire..thongs ? They don't chafe and just feel not right ? Anyone ??
loved it, OK , so I am a dirty older male with nasty thoughts, not really, just wear the shades, and look up every now and then..and smile..
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www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/06/summertime-in-iran.html---------------------------------------------------
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Summertime
by CORRESPONDENT in Tehran
29 Jun 2011 22:356 CommentsAnd the Living is Not-So-Easy
"Summertime Tehran can be testing place for the female sex. Each year, as the mercury climbs to the high thirties, several thousand harbingers of hot weather appear in the city's main squares and boulevards.
They wear black chadors that sweep the ground, and their mission is to purge the female crowd of nude forearms, heavy makeup and over-accentuated curves. Resistance is futile, as they have backup: Standing behind them are male Basiji guards, and, for problematic cases, a convenient police van ready to transport offenders to a more discreet location.
With the approaching summer heat and the impending threat of publicly displayed bare skin, authorities devote considerable manpower to enforcing the "law of hejab and dignity."
This year, 70,000 moral police have reportedly been deployed to enforce proper hejab, cracking down not only on women, but also on men sporting tight denim, Western t-shirts and "un-Islamic" hairstyles.
Minoo Aslani, the head of Basiji Women, has mobilized her subordinates, announcing a "support of hejab" rally to be held after Friday prayer on July 2.
International congresses and workshops for teachers on the "ideology of hejab and dignity" are also on the agenda, according to official news sources.
While such spectacles are an annual occurrence, several opposition websites have drawn attention to the unusual severity of enforcement this year, suggesting that authorities are using the hejab law to react to the most recent smattering of Green Movement protests.
For an average Tehrani woman, all of this portends an array of quotidian limitations that go beyond dress code.
Taxi drivers, who say they have been threatened with losing their licenses if caught transporting a woman with bad hejab, hesitate to stop for moderately dressed female passengers.
While usually loosely enforced, the ban on females smoking in public is now strictly observed in popular cafes, at least one of which was recently shuttered, purportedly for tolerating improper dress.
In addition, tampons, which are generally hard to find in Iran, have been discontinued from sale at some drug stores and supermarkets. According to one pharmacist, their import is now prohibited, though this could not be confirmed.
Local women generally remain undaunted by such impositions.
Most shrug off the heightened policing as a seasonal inconvenience, and limit their protest to occasional grumbling as they close an extra buttonhole on their manteau.
To cope with the heat, many seek refuge in one of Tehran's few female-only public zones--the only places where they are free from the rules of Islamic dress.
"It gets so hot, sometimes you just want to rip it off," said a smiling "Setareh," a bikini-wearing student who sunned herself at a public, gender-segregated swimming pool on a recent weekday afternoon. "It feels so suffocating."
