The universal wearing of the hijab by women, including foreign tourists, will only attract travelers to Iran. Such an ambiguous opinion, according to the Iranwire portal, was expressed by the Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Crafts of the Republic of Ezzatollah Zargami on May 3.
“Government crackdowns on women without mandatory headscarves in public places could become a tourist attraction,” the official quoted the now-popular trend among Russians as saying. In addition, in an interview with the ILNA news agency, he dismissed the idea that mistreatment of women without a hijab could deter foreigners from visiting Iran. “Anything can become a tourist attraction for a foreign tourist. They (tourists) would even take pictures of it (foreign tourists in headscarves),” Zargami said confidently.
The Minister also expressed satisfaction that most foreign female travelers coming to the Islamic Republic will still strictly adhere to the mandatory hijab rules.
Recall that in recent weeks the Iranian authorities have intensified their efforts to introduce the mandatory wearing of headscarves, as more and more women are defying the strict dress code of this country. All women in Iran are required to cover their hair with a headscarf and wear loose trousers under their coats when in public.
But since Mahsa Amini, 22, died in police custody in September, a growing number of women have appeared in public without the headscarf. The girl's death sparked nationwide protests demanding fundamental economic, social and political changes. Amini was arrested allegedly for improperly wearing a headscarf.
Some of the recalcitrant women were then arrested by the local police. They were all brought to justice, and hundreds of cafes and restaurants, as well as shopping malls, were put on hold and shut down by the authorities for allegedly failing to enforce the country's hijab law on their clients.
The riots have greatly affected Iran's tourism industry. In January, the head of the country's Association of Tour Operators lamented that now “there are no bookings among European tourists.” “We don’t have any bookings for the spring, and it seems that foreign tourists do not plan to come to Iran,” Ebrahim Porfaradzh complained then.
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