according to the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA).
Neckties were outlawed soon after the revolution, but few men have worn them in public for decades so enforcement has not been an issue. Recently, however, the wearing of neckties seems to have grown as a protest against the regime. That is likely what has sparked the new crackdown, even though the protest does not appear widespread.
Shopkeepers started reporting in late May that the Public Space Department of the Law Enforcement Forces had ordered all shops to remove ties from sale. Dozens of shops were raided in Tehran and some retailers were reportedly fined for selling ties.
Ties have been available in shops ever since the revolution, as upper class males often wear them at private gatherings in their homes as well as to weddings and funerals.
Eight years ago, a Majlis candidate in Tehran wore a tie in the photos he plastered all over the capital. That caused a stir—but more in the form of chuckles than angry opposition. He lost the election.
Javad Dorodian, head of the shirt tailors and retailers union, told ISNA, “After the victory of the Islamic revolution, the sale of ties was banned; however, this was not strictly enforced and the issue would only surface sporadically, forcing retailers to interrupt the sale of neckties.”
Ties have lately regained some popularity, and even some employees in the Foreign Ministry have been spotted wearing them.
The crackdown this time seems harsher. Dorodian said, “Even our logo, which always had a tie in it, had to be changed and the tie had to be removed.”
Concurrent with the crackdown on the shops, police also raided an international food exhibition where female attendants were reportedly not fully covering their heads. More than 80 booths were closed because many women working there were “not properly observing hejab,” according to Ahmad Reza Radan, Iran’s deputy police chief.
Minor violations of the dress code generally result in fines or short-term arrests, but it was not clear how the police dealt with the women in the booths.
Some historians believe ties are Persian in origin. They say ties were first worn in the Sassanian Empire (244-642 CE), which was ended by the Arab invasion. In today’s Iran, however, ties are considered a symbol of Western decadence.