Chador

thumb|Girls planting [[trees in Mashhad on Arbor Day wearing chador]]

A chador is an outer garment or open cloak worn by many women in the Persian-influenced countries of Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, and to a lesser extent Tajikistan, as well as in Shia communities in Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon, India and Qatif in Saudi Arabia in public spaces or outdoors.

A chador is a full-body-length semicircle of fabric that is open down the front. The garment is pulled over the head, and is held closed at the front by the wearer; the chador has no hand openings, buttons, or clasps. It may also be held closed by being tucked under the wearer's arms. The word in Classical Persian could be used in reference to almost any cloth, headscarf, or even tents. This definition is mostly retained in the Eastern Persian varieties Tajiki and Dari, which commonly use reflexes of chādar in reference to almost any cloth or scarf, including loosely worn scarves that would be inappropriate to call a chador in Iranian Persian.

Before the 1978–1979 Iranian Revolution, black chadors were reserved for funerals and periods of mourning; colorful, patterned fabrics were the norm for everyday wear. Currently, the majority of Iranian women who wear the chador use the black version outside, and reserve light-colored chadors for indoor use.

Historical background

Ancient and early Islamic times

thumb|upright|left|[[Malek Jahan Khanom, regent of Qajar Iran in 1848]]

Fadwa El Guindi locates the origin of the veil in ancient Mesopotamia, where "wives and daughters of high-ranking men of the nobility had to veil". The veil marked class status, and this dress code was regulated by sumptuary laws.

One of the first representation of a chador is found on Ergili sculptures and the "Satrap sarcophagus" from Persian Anatolia.

Bruhn/Tilke, in their 1941 A Pictorial History of Costume, do show a drawing, said to be copied from an Achaemenid relief of the 5th century BC, of an individual with their lower face hidden by a long cloth wrapped around the head. Some have mistakenly claimed this to be a woman, but it is actually a Mede soldier. Achaemenid women in art were almost always uncovered.

It is likely that the custom of veiling continued through the Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian eras. Veiling was not limited to noble women but was practiced also by Persian kings. and Islam which was considered a limitation of women.

Before Islam

In some artifacts remaining from the Achaemenid era, such as a relief in Ergili (in northwestern Anatolia), a fabric design in Pazyryk, and certain Greco-Iranian seals, coverings resembling modern-day chadors can be observed. Some statues from the Parthian era depict women wearing coverings similar to chadors, placed over a headscarf.

After Islam

During the Islamic period, the chador merely represented one type of clothing adapted to comply with Islamic dress codes and has never had a uniform function, shape, stitching, size, or even color. Based on literary evidence, in both pre- and post-Islamic Iran, the chador was used both as a covering for the face or head and as a full-body garment.

In its latter meaning, the chador has found various synonyms in Arabic, one of which is "Hibrā." This term referred to the women’s covering during the Umayyad Caliphate (41–132 AH) and was considered a type of mulāyah. Mulāyah was the common covering for women outside the home in the early Abbasid Caliphate (132–656 AH), which covered the entire body. In an illustration from a copy of "Al-Maqamat" by Al-Hariri, women are seen wearing coverings similar to today’s chador at gatherings of sermon and justice, dating back to no later than the mid-6th century.

Our understanding of the exact description of this covering, regardless of its name, is largely related to more recent periods, particularly from the Safavid and Ottoman eras onwards. Accordingly, women did not view the chador solely as a veil or covering; aesthetic considerations, especially in the choice of fabric and decorations, played a significant role. The influence of women’s financial status and social class was evident in determining the fabric and embellishments of the chador.

Elite women in Fes, unlike ordinary women in Morocco, adorned the edges of their chadors with white silk or other colors during the Ottoman era, fastening them with large gold or silver rings at the chest. During the Qajar era, the chadors of elite women were often made of silk, while less affluent women used "Dabit" fabric for their chadors. Elite women embroidered their black chadors with gold thread and attached silver or silver-plated borders, which gradually gave way to red borders in colors like blue, brown, and white, measuring two fingers wide. During this period, "Abaya" chadors, which were highly valuable and imported from Baghdad, were in high demand among these women.

Pahlavi era (1925–1979)

thumb|450px|right|Military commanders of the Iranian armed forces, government officials, and their wives commemorating the abolition of the veil in 1936

The 20th century Pahlavi ruler Reza Shah banned the chador and all hijab during the Kashf-e hijab in 1936, as incompatible with his modernizing ambitions. According to Mir-Hosseini, as cited by El Guindi, "the police were arresting women who wore the veil and forcibly removing it". This policy outraged the Twelver Shia clerics, and ordinary men and women, to whom "appearing in public without their cover was tantamount to nakedness". However, she continues, "this move was welcomed by Westernized and upperclass men and women, who saw it in liberal terms as a first step in granting women their rights".

Iranian Revolution

After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, compulsory hijab were introduced, which was met with opposition from women during the 1979 International Women's Day protests in Tehran.thumb|Women wearing chadors in [[Shiraz, Iran, 2019|258x258px]]In April 1980, during the Iranian Cultural Revolution, it was decided that it would be mandatory for women in government offices and educational institutions to observe the veil. In 1983, a dispute regarding the veiling broke out, and public conflict was motivated by the definition of veiling and its scale (so-called "bad hijab" issue), sometimes followed even by clashes against those who were perceived to wear improper clothing.

However, an Indian and Pakistani cādar may more closely resemble a dupatta. In many Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi and Bengali, cādar is the vernacular term used to refer to the uttariya. The Hindustani word can also refer to other type of sheets, such as bed sheets. Draping the graves of Sufi saints with chadar is a devotional practice common among Muslims in the region. Many non-Muslim politicians in India engage in this act as a way of reaching out to Muslims. There are also a small Haredi Jewish groups in which the women wear black head-to-toe cloaks similar to the chador, such as the extremist Lev Tahor.

Historical background

Ancient and early Islamic times

Before Islam

After Islam

Pahlavi era (1925–1979)

Iranian Revolution

See also

Notes

References

Further reading