When the French first embraced the knotted neckerchiefs worn by 17th-century Croatian mercenaries, few would have guessed its descendant — the tie — would one day be worn as standard business attire the world over.
Everywhere, that is, except the clerical establishment of Iran, which banned the sale of the garment after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, deeming it a symbol of Western decadence, and has this week moved again to reassert its sartorial will.
Ties had returned to boutiques and shops in the major cities under reformist former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, who relaxed many old restrictions. However, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency, the religious police are now to enforce the often-ignored ban.
“Shops were banned from selling ties after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, but in recent years some vendors have once again started to sell them despite warnings by the responsible authorities in the police,” ISNA said. “The ban has never been pursued seriously and that’s why ties sales have increased significantly in the clothes shops.”
Despite the ban on selling ties, wearing them is not an offense. While it is not considered acceptable for government employees to wear the garment, an increasing number of people dress with ties when working for private firms or going to formal parties. Some universities allow students to wear them and bridegrooms, including men who have never worn one in the past, will often wear a tie for their wedding.
A seller told ISNA that all shops have been notified by the police to take their ties off display and that those who break the ban risk having their shops closed down. Javad Doroodian, the head of Iran’s clothes sellers and weavers union, told ISNA it had been asked to change its logo because it contained an image of a tie.
The tie may even have Iranian origins. Although there are many theories, the Netherlands-based Radiozamaneh cited British historian Noel Malcolm, who said the knotted neckerchief was first imported to Europe, and the Croatian mercenaries, from Iran during the Sassanid Empire.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS