Chador

Malek Jahan Khanom, Mahd-e Olia, regent of Imperial 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".[4] 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.[5] 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.[6] Some have mistakenly claimed this to be a woman, but it is actually a Mede soldier.[7] Achaemenid Iranian women in art were almost always uncovered.[5] The earliest written record of chador can be found in Pahlavi scripts from the 6th century, as a female head dress worn by Zoroastrian women.[8]

It is likely that the custom of veiling continued through the Seleucid, Parthian, and Sassanid periods. Veiling was not limited to noble women but was practised also by the Persian kings.[8] Upper-class Greek and Byzantine women were also secluded from the public gaze. European visitors of the 18th and 19th centuries have left pictorial records of women wearing the chador and the long white veil.

During the Islamic era, the chador retained the meaning of adornment to some extent in Iran , but over time, it took on the meaning of Islam and the Islamic hijab which was one of the concepts of Quran [9] and Islam which was considered a limitation of women.

Military commanders of the Iranian armed forces, government officials, and their wives commemorating the abolition of the veil in 1936

"Statue of a Liberated Woman" representing a woman tearing off her chador, Baku, Azerbaijan

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.[10] 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 Shi'a 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".[11]

Eventually, rules of dress code were relaxed, and after Reza Shah's abdication in 1941, the compulsory element in the policy of unveiling was abandoned, though the policy remained intact throughout the Pahlavi era. According to Mir-Hosseini, 'between 1941 and 1979, wearing hejab [hijab] was no longer an offence, but it was a real hindrance to climbing the social ladder, a badge of backwardness, and a marker of class. A headscarf, let alone the chador, prejudiced the chances of advancement in work and society not only of working women, but also of men, who were increasingly expected to appear with their wives at social functions. Fashionable hotels and restaurants sometimes even refused to admit women with chador, schools and universities actively discouraged the chador, although the headscarf was tolerated. It was common to see girls from traditional families, who had to leave home with the chador, arriving at school without it and then putting it on again on the way home'.[12]

After the Iranian Revolution, compulsory hijab were introduced, which was met with opposition from women during the International Women's Day Protests in Tehran, 1979.

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.[13] 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.[13] Government felt obligated to deal with this situation; so, on 26 July 1984, Tehran's public prosecutor issued a statement and announced that stricter dress-code is supposed to be observed in public places such as institutions, theaters, clubs, hotels, motels, and restaurants, while in the other places, it should follow the pattern of the overwhelming majority of people.[13] Stricter veiling implies both chador and more loosely khimar-type headscarf, along with overcoat.