Iran redefines social security, overcoats

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has begun a "ferocious crackdown" on un-Islamic behaviour and dress, according to the BBC. Khamenei is calling it a "social security plan."

Earlier this year, the first part of a carrot-and-stick approach kicked in as fashion houses offered women more stylish Islamic clothing to choose from. Apparently that didn't work, so the stick has come out.

Now the police are warning they will deal seriously with any women who dare to wear short trousers, skimpy overcoats or skirts that are revealingly transparent or have slits in them.

I understand completely. At our Baptist youth camp, mixed bathing and shorts were strictly forbidden for much the same reason. Skimpy overcoats are especially dangerous. That's where real trouble can start, and it's a slippery slope thereafter.

Here's how the usual, sad pattern probably develops in Iran:

A girl goes out with a skimpy overcoat. She gets cold. She complains to her boyfriend through the accompanying chaperon. Her boyfriend asks the chaperon to warm her up. Soon she, the boyfriend and the chaperon are all under a big blanket where anything can happen.

Luckily, Iran’s Islamic penal system still follows tried and true sentencing guidelines for petty crimes, such as amputation of limbs, eye gouging, stoning to death and throwing prisoners off a cliff in a sack. So we're confidant millions of Iranian women will be ordering XXX-Large, Plus-sized overcoats this winter, reasoning it's better to look like a bag lady than to end up in a sack.

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