You must read this article. It looks like another cultural revolution in Iran may be brewing, but this time, it just may be peaceful ... and look fabulous!
Tehran — FIRST, a text message arrived. The brief note invited recipients to call about the location of a secret meeting. A cryptic phone conversation followed. "Who referred you?" a woman asked. "Who do you know?"
A man drove up in a Korean hatchback and dropped off a coded slip of paper. The directions led to a bland apartment building in the north of this capital.
There, men and women draped in coats and head scarves entered the lobby, their faces sullen. A young man examined their documents for signs of forgery before allowing them to pass down the staircase to the basement and into a sea of bare skin and perfume.
Amid air kisses and gossip, techno and hip-hop music thumps. The guests slide out of dark overcoats to unsheathe daringly low-cut dresses and open-slit gowns, form-fitting sweaters and go-go boots, skin-tight T-shirts and acid-washed jeans. Skinny, long-legged models giggle as they slip into outfits of satin and silk. A red carpet serves as a runway.
A clandestine Tehran fashion show glitters gloriously to life....
But this season in Tehran, despite a public crackdown on men and women showing too much flesh in public, fantasy and funky fabrics are in. For the mostly young crowd attending this show, politics are, like, so 10 years ago.
Since the beginning of the Islamic Republic 28 years ago, those who opposed Iran's Islamic system have carved out sanctuaries from its restrictions. Those islands have become more and more elaborate. They include outlandish liquor- and drug-soaked parties, art exhibitions, showings of banned movies, hip-hop concerts....
IRAN'S government seems to mind less and less about such transgressions, so long as they remain discreet. If anything, Tehran has become more libertine under the conservative presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Hundreds of thousands of illegal satellite dishes have sprouted from the tops of buildings. Police who once violently broke up late-night parties now politely ask hosts to keep the noise down.
Even as government censors attempt to tighten restrictions on movies and music, young Iranians now groove to their own tunes on iPods or Walkmans as they go down the street, a rare sight only five years ago. Women still comply with the requirement of keeping themselves covered, but the coverings have become tighter, more colorful and shorter, their mandatory scarves more flimsy and revealing....
"I was shocked," says Parastou, a 29-year-old spectator at the show who works part time as a translator. "This is the first time I am seeing such a thing in our country."
"At first, I said, 'Wow! I cannot believe it!' " he adds.
"But little by little I got used to watching my fellow countrywomen walking around … I enjoyed it. And even though I was shocked, I know that next time I won't be shocked."