dress1012

The women's dress code has been a controversial issue in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Official attempts to force women fully to respect the code have so far been futile. During the eight-year presidency of reformist Mohammad Khatami , the issue was ignored, with the effect of encouraging women to follow new and far more daring fashion styles. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has several times voiced his own opposition to any social crackdowns, but he has had to give in to demands from clergy to renew the fight against what they call "Western cultural invasion."I've always wondered, and it's a question I wrestled with growing up, why men walk away from their own children. The sharp-toothed socio-economic implications that fatherlessness has on the life of a growing child can be unbearable if that child has no other support system. I was fortunate. My support system and safety net was my grandmother, who raised me. A simple woman who was a hospital laundry worker, she never really explained to me why my father, ironically a United Nations human rights judge, walked away shortly after I was born. My mother also walked away. She only spoke briefly about a conflict between my mother and father that had affected me. Grandma never opened up as to why my parents were never around to contribute to my growth. She focused on raising me rather than making a federal case out of something she had no control over. At one point I questioned if my parents' behavior was narcissism of the highest order.