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By Sara Elghobashy October 8, 2009 Last week, the IRNA news agency, the official news agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran, warned shop owners against displaying mannequins with curves or ones that don’t wear hijab, all in an effort to cut down on “un-Islamic behavior.” (Were their bodies too bootylicious? I guess the morality police wasn’t ready for this...plastic.) While some news agencies have reported that this is the first time in Iranian history that orders of a strict dress code have descended upon inanimate objects, these tactics have actually been used repeatedly by the Iranian regime since the 1979 revolution. Mannequins have been deployed time and time again to deliver a message of conservatism that contradicts the beliefs of many Iranian women. It began with their short skirts; then it was their uncovered hair that needed to change, their painted faces, their manicured fingernails and curvaceous bodies. However, it seems that no matter what is done to these mannequins, they continue to fail the Iranian regime. Maybe women, unlike mannequins, are not lifeless objects that can’t fight back. Iranian women have proven that they refuse to take the theft of their femininity and the revocation of their right to individual expression lying down (or standing silently). Regulating what mannequins wear in an effort to influence women makes the Iranian government seem out of touch, delusional and crazy. It’s almost as though they don’t realize that curtailing these personal freedoms only results in an outwardly “Islamic” appearance that in no way reflects or changes people’s personal beliefs (except maybe toward the opposite of the regime’s intended goal), and thus causes many Iranians to lead schizophrenic lives. The suffocating laws of the Iranian government supply the resentment and anger that brews beneath the surface and fuels the Iranian feminist movement, a movement led by intelligent men and women who carefully navigate the obstacles and boulders thrown their way by hard-line clerics only to resurface in defiance. Whether it is by showing a part of their hair, wearing form-fitting and colorful manteaus, embracing “Western” style influences or participating in underground fashion weeks, Iranian women will continue to demonstrate that their freedom of expression cannot be stolen. So suppress these mannequins as you please, but you cannot suppress the Iranian women with them. Photo Credit: AZLAN HASHIM http://www.elanthemag.com/index.php/site/blog_detail/now_mannequins_are_seductive/