[Reader-list] Iran's Hairstyle Laws No Laughing Matter

[Pawan Durani]

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/07/irans-hairstyle-laws-no-laughing-matter/59292/

The Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance's new dictate on
acceptable male hairstyles might seem absurd, even silly. The
government agency has drawn international attention by requiring
Iranian men to choose from a handful of "Islamic" haircuts. But the
restrictions, another in a long line of Islam-touting regulations on
the daily life of Iranian citizens, are no joke. That they are
arbitrary and bizarre is precisely the point.

Whatever you think of the Iranian leadership's judgment, it's unlikely
that they feel particularly threatened by spiked hair or frosted tips.
While the regime often cites religion in such laws, Koranic scholars
will find little in Shia doctrine forbidding hair gel. The regime's
chief goal is control of the public sphere, which it has aggressively
pursued for years. Westerners will be most familiar with the clunky
black chador forced on Iranian women by the often violent Islamic
police. There are also tight controls on the media, on who may attend
private social gatherings, and even laws forbidding unmarried,
unrelated women and men from publicly interacting. Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei sees these restrictions as essential for maintaining , and
the more that Iranians agitate for democracy the more he will respond
by grinding personal freedoms into the sand.

Iran has endured authoritarian rule for a century, but state control
has accelerated to Soviet extremes over the past decade. In the 1990s,
Iranian leadership split over whether or not Iran should adopt what
was commonly described as the "China model" of gradual economic
liberalization and increased foreign ties. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
ultimately decided against the plan, worried that political
liberalization would follow and ultimately threaten his authoritarian
rule. But the lengthy public discourse had convinced a number of
Iranians--especially within the middle class--of the benefits of
opening the borders and markets. Many of these business-oriented but
largely apolitical Iranians joined university liberals who had long
called for democratization. As the forces of globalization pressured
Iran from without and reformists pressured Iran from within, the
regime became increasingly insecure.

Demographically, Iran should be a democracy. It has high literacy and
education rates, a large and vibrant middle class, independent labor
and business communities, and a strong tradition of political
organizing and involvement. The regime retains authoritarian rule in
large part because it firmly controls so much of Iranians' public
lives. The regime typically increases these controls in times of
social unrest. The baseej, an informal citizen militia loosely tied to
the state, can closely monitor their neighbors and brutally enforce
state restrictions. Many Iranians become so consumed with navigating
these complicated laws that public spaces become places of fear and
self-censorship. Because phone taps are common and because your
neighbor might be a baseej who closely monitors whoever enters your
home, even private spaces are suffocated by state control. Regulating
hair styles may not seem like it would be very effective, but this
move is part of a sweeping, pervasive strategy to engineer individual
freedom out of every imaginable aspect of public life.