of the spiritual disposition and moral training of the youth to preserve their health and restrain their sex instinct.
•Preservation of the sanctity and protection of chastity, honour, and family dignity.
* * *
Since sin and crime are seen as equivalent by the authorities, confessing one’s crime (‘eteraf) and repentance (toubeh) are also usually the same. Unlike Catholicism, there is no explicit verbalized confession in Islam, but Muslims are expected to repent (toubeh) alone and in their hearts.16 Summons to make toubeh became pervasive in various forms, such as in official speeches, religious lectures, graffiti, and in textbooks. In the religious handbook, Javanan Chera? (Youth, Why?), we read “One should see him/herself before the Divine Justice [‘adl-e elahi] and make toubeh for his/her bad deeds” (Zamani 1379/2000: 155). Another instance: “We watch her/him from afar and let her/him take his/her own steps. If we choose these methods, our children will easily tell us their secrets and control themselves. This is what faith means” (Ahmadi 1380/2001: 70).
Confession is a central component in the expanding of “techniques of discipline” and control of bodies and society, especially “telling the truth” about sexuality (Foucault 1990: 59): “in confession after confession to oneself and to others, this mise en discours has placed the individual in a network of relations of power with those who claim to be able to extract the truth of these confessions through their possession of the keys to interpretation” (Dreyfus and Rabinow 1983: 174). In the Iranian context the border between confessing (‘eteraf) one’s crimes and one’s sins (almost always sexual ones) has collapsed.
It has been very common for accused journalists, intellectuals, and political activists to “confess” their sexual sins/crimes alongside what they are actually accused of. Political offenses are linked to sexual misdemeanors. Confessions of the individual’s sexual life have become part of politics in Iran. Every day on the streets people are forced by the moral police to confess to their sexual “sins.” Two unrelated persons of opposite sex found in the company of each other are forced by the moral police to “confess” to what kind of (read sexual) relationship they have. The young couples are interrogated separately and then the girl’s story is compared with the boy’s to check if they are lying or not. Prepared for this, young couples adopt tactics to deceive the system. The boy borrows his sister’s identity and even ID-card for his girlfriend, or they prearrange a story to mislead the police.
Elli’s trouble with the moral police is an illustrative example. She told me she was once stopped by “moral policewomen.” They first ordered her to correct her veil and then began to insult her, saying that she looked like a whore. Elli wore an overall on which there were several lines that made an arrow pointing downward. The policewomen claimed that the pattern “pointed at Elli’s cunt” in order to attract the attention of boys.
Veiling and Modesty
Imposing veiling and unveiling has been seen metaphorically by Iranians as a hallmark of the “tradition/modernity” (sonat/tajadoud) dichotomy. While “modernity” took the concrete form of unveiling, one of the first concerns of the Islamist movements is veiling.17 Although veiling and modesty in Iran go back in time well beyond the Islamic Republic, it was only after the Revolution that veiling and sex segregation for all were enforced and given a political and juridical dimension. Sex segregation of public spaces was ordered at the very beginning of the Islamic Republic. Rules prescribing the hejab as a proper and modest attire for women were written into the law. One form of “cultural crime” is bad-hejabi (improper veiling). Women had to cover their hair and skin in public, except for the face and hands. In 1983, Parliament made “observance of the veil” compulsory in the Penal Law, on pain of 74 lashes (Kar 1380/2001: 126–27). In 1996, the Penal Law was reformed and the punishment of bad-hejabi was reduced to prison and a fine. Bad-hejabi is only vaguely defined by the law. “Uncovered head, showing of hair, make-up, uncovered arms and legs, thin and see-through clothes and tights, tight clothes such as trousers without an overall over them, and clothes bearing foreign words, signs, or pictures” (Paidar 1995: 344) can be understood as bad-hejabi. But the term can also refer to the use of nail varnish, brightly colored overalls, or even modes of body movement or talking (Kar 1380/2001: 127). Mehrangiz Kar, a lawyer and activist for women’s rights, states that the fines paid by women accused of bad-hejabi represent a considerable revenue for the judiciary. According to the Article 638 of the Islamic Penal Law, “Unveiled women who appear in public places and in the public’s sight will be sentenced to prison from ten days to two months or to pay a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 Rials.”
Patterns of dress are often a form of communication. Veiling expresses modesty, as in the expression, “My sister, your veil is a sign of your chastity” (Khaharam, hejab-e tou neshane-ye effat-e toust). In political discourse the veil is presented both as a symbol of inner purity and modesty (nejjabat) and as an ideological device in the war against “cultural invasion.” That women are improperly veiled is seen as caused by plotting by the internal and external enemies of the Revolution. This view is best formulated in the famous slogan, “My sister, your veil is more vital than the blood of the martyrs.” An improperly veiled woman “dishonors the blood of the martyrs of Islam” (see Paidar 1995: 339). Violence against so-called bad-hejab women has been a daily scene since the Revolution.18 To find a solution for the bad hejabi “problem,” the Majlis (parliament) started a debate and research for creating a “national dress code” for Iranians in October 2005.
Veiling is a gender question involving men also. Historically, men in Middle Eastern societies were also supposed to be “veiled” (see El Guindi 1999: 117–28). Men are concerned, even if to a different degree, with veiling in a more abstract sense, and in the concrete sense of covering bodily parts seen as immodest. Like women, men are not allowed to exhibit their bodies or to adorn them by wearing ties or bow ties, sunglasses, necklaces, or earrings. Having long hair is taken as a violation of the Islamic order. Wearing short-sleeved shirts or shorts is against normative modesty. Men’s averted gaze is also a consequence of veiling. As Abu-Lughod has noted, modesty means more than veiling according to strict Muslim reading. It means hiding your natural needs and passions, for instance, by not smoking, laughing loudly, or talking too much. Modesty is about “masking one’s nature, about not exposing oneself to the other” (1986: 115). Covering “sexual shame,” the veil makes sense of the dichotomy between related and unrelated people. A woman should cover her sexual shame for men she is not related to, that is, men who might be potential sexual partners.
Both men and women must be protected from being seen by unrelated persons of the opposite sex by following a set of rules of modesty that apply to architecture, dress, behavior, eye contact, and forms of interaction (Milani 1992), but they must also veil themselves in more indirect ways. Women must to some extent veil their voice. “Veiling of the voice includes using formal language with unrelated males and females, a decorous tone of voice, and avoidance of singing, boisterous laugher, and generally any emotional outburst in public other than the expression of grief or anger” (Naficy 2000: 562).
The salient side of normative modesty is effacement. In the Iranian culture, face (rou) is a common metaphor for self-assertion and is used as a symbol in measuring the social ethic. Kam-roui (little-face, shyness) or rou nadashtan (not having a face) is a sign of humbleness, while rou dashtan (to have face) or pour-roui (full-face) stands for self-exposure, brashness, and free expression, in what is perceived as an aggressive and arrogant manner. The expression roum nemishe means “my face does not allow me to say or do it.” A person’s honor and reputation are his/her aberou (water of face). Similarly, the expression sharm-e hozour (shame of presence) refers to the same high-valued self-effacement. One who has sharm-e hozour (one who is ashamed of his/her presence) is a meek and respectful person. The mahjob (veiled one) is a courteous person.
