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Download MP3Iran’s culture ministry handed out guidelines this week about what
kind of haircuts to give their customers, and the list is not limited
to Muslims. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with the BBC’s Behzad Bolour
for details.

• Photo: Iran approved hair

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World. Iranian men would do well not to give these instructions to the barber.

MUSIC:  I want it long, straight, curly, fuzzy

Snaggy, shaggy, ratty, matty

Oily, greasy, fleecy

Shining, gleaming, streaming

Flaxen, waxen

WERMAN:  This week Iranian barbers received guidelines about what kind of haircuts to give their customers and the words “fuzzy,” “shaggy,” and “streaming” are nowhere to be found. Iran’s culture ministry gave its blessing to shorter hair styles and just to make sure, the ILNA news agency carried pictures of the approved haircuts. The BBC’s Behzad Bolour is in our London studios to talk about this. What’s interesting Behzad, is that these guidelines are not just for Muslims, it’s a guideline for all kinds of religious hairdos that will comply with Iranian culture and Islamic law, right?

BEHZAD BOLOUR: Yes, whoever’s inside the country. That’s why it’s a bit political other than religious because in Islam for instance, non-Muslim woman doesn’t have to wear a hair scarf, but in Iran they have to wear it so it’s more a political thing.

WERMAN: And they mention haircuts for not just Muslims, but Sikhs, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and even Rastafarians.

BOLOUR: I don’t think anybody in Iran knows that there’s Rastafarian in the world and who they are. They’ve seen Bob Marley, but that’s it. But when I looked at the pictures of the hairstyles, actually they looked very generous for Islamic government. You can have almost a long sort of top or you can have it a bit puffed up, which is quite generous compared to a few years ago when I was there.

WERMAN: And Behzad, what is your haircut like? I mean do you have a, kind of a special style that can work in both London and Tehran if you need to go back?

BOLOUR: No, I can not because I got long hair actually and hats because I’m losing hair on top, so I – sometimes I want to have pigtails. So that doesn’t go very well down there, but Iranian men and women, young middle class live double lives. Outside you look different, look much more [SOUNDS LIKE] calmer, then you go to a party and create this virtual free world. So you sort of spike up your hair and just look different.

WERMAN: There aren’t any rules on gel are there for any religious…?

BOLOUR: No, no, actually they have been okay with that. It shows that they want to pretend to have an open mind about these things and they’re happy for young men to look different, but they don’t want them to look like foreigners or Westerners. They created this national Islamic fashion. If you’re in Iran you have to abide the rules.

WERMAN: And what if you don’t abide by these rules? Is there a fine or a prison sentence for hairstyle offenders?

BOLOUR: Well, first of all you get very badly treated and the moral police stops you, questions you, and they’re not very nice to you.

WERMAN: And if they see – like if they see you in the street with a mullet, are there people like – the moral police, do you recognize them? Will they come up to you and say go get it cut?

BOLOUR: Yeah. That also fashion police would stop them anyway. Yeah, they stop you, they take you, and I’ve seen some videos of inside the police station, they cut your hair and they treat you a bit rough.

WERMAN: So, with some religions like the Sikhs and the Rastafarians, I mean they’re actually allowed to have longer hair.

BOLOUR: Well, Sikhs, they don’t show their hair. They have turban, so they’re okay. And there’s no Rastafarians in Iran, but if there were…

WERMAN: Not a single one.

BOLOUR: Not a single one. I haven’t seen a single one. But there’s an Iranian stereotype of the long ponytail and that’s for the very sensitive, artistic, elite young Iranian man. And they’ll be a bit in danger.

WERMAN: Behzad, bottom line, do you think these new rules for hairstyles are a sign that Iran is opening up or is it tightening, do you think?

BOLOUR: They’re a sign of both. It’s showing that it’s creating regulation for hairstyles, it’s tightening. But they’ve opened up the limits a bit, but also want to create a unified look around Iran.

WERMAN: The BBC’s Behzad Bolour in our London studios. Thank you very much for speaking with us.

BOLOUR: Yeah, thank you.

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