...Scene 4. An army of Angelina Jolie clones is roaming north Tehran, from the malls and cafes of trendy Vanak Street to the upper class suburb of Eliyaheh. Jolie is the ultimate feminist symbol in Tehran. The reason is simple: she looks Persian. And she embodies the image of the ultimate temptress - the bete noire of the Islamic regime, obsessed with female virtue. The black chador, compulsory from 1979 onwards, was supposed to master the legendary power of seduction of the Persian woman. In south Tehran, the chador still ranks a roughly 50% approval rate. But on the other side of town, the preferred composite look goes something like this: colorful Chanel or Hermes scarf, barely disguising a fashionable hairstyle; tons of make up (preferably Mac); Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses; a short, tight, light overcoat posing as a chador; designer jeans; and illegally imported Ferragamo shoes. The miniskirt is not back, yet, but some more adventurous temptresses are already showing off golden ankle bracelets, something that in Khomeini times would have landed them in jail. No wonder testosterone levels are on red alert: Tehran men simply can't stop talking about "all the pretty girls".
A pretty young lady from Eliyaheh, drenched in Chanel and Hermes, wouldn't be caught dead shopping in "medieval" Tehran bazaars, "over there" in the south side of town (and local taxi drivers wouldn't even know how to take her back to north Tehran): a megamall in Dubai would be a different proposition entirely. On Thursday nights the pretty young one takes ecstasy at US$2 a pop and goes cruising in dad's made-in-Iran Peugeot on secluded, tree-lined Fereshte Street, listening to Russian techno. On her holidays, she goes to Goa in India or Malaysia, and if dad is really part of "those people", London or LA (or Tehrangeles, as it is locally known, the largest Iranian population in any city outside of Iran). To master the killer Jolie look, she just needs to buy a pirated video CD of Mr and Mrs Smith, a Jolie-Brad Pitt movie, for less than $3. Talk about "cultural invasion"... |