Middle East Focus: Haute Couture: Ahmadinejad and Coco Chanel and Gingrich……….

Arabia Deserta

Haute Couture: Ahmadinejad and Coco Chanel and Gingrich……….

Rattlesnake Ridge

BFF

“Now, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is stepping into the dispute. He wants to settle it by promoting government-approved clothes for women, garments intended to introduce an array of women’s uniforms that are “Islamic and beautiful” at the same time. Hard-liners are not amused. They charge that the new designs encourage “Western values.” But at a recent government-sponsored fashion show, young women and their mothers gazed approvingly at headless plastic mannequins showcasing the new coats and scarves. Shoukoufeh Arabpour, 23, coveted a velvet blue “manteau,” as women’s coats are called here, borrowing from the French word. The design was called “peacock” and clearly marked a world of difference from the black chador that Arabpour had wrapped around herself………….”

Ahamadinejad is smarter than the more conservative clerics and parliamentarians. He knows that it is a losing battle to try enforcing harsh dress codes in Iran. Whatever face he presents to the outside world, the man has a doctorate (just like Newt Gingrich, but his degree is in science not history & lobby-ism or was it celebrity-ism) and he was a mayor of Tehran. He presumably has some awareness of the outside world and what many Iranians prefer. It looks like he is trying to strike a balance between what the mullahs prefer and what the general population wants. As it is, many Iranian women ignore the dress code, giving bare lip service to the official dress code.
Now Mr. Ahmadinejad is getting into the fashion industry. I can discern the seeds of a new career after he leaves office in 2013. I didn’t know the man was into aesthetics, he doesn’t look or sound like it, but apparently he has some talents. Now, about that single celebrated faithful jacket.....
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com