Fashionista alert: Spring has sprung in Iran

Once again, Iran is cracking down on women whose clothing is "un-Islamic." This time, Tehran claims that the crackdown will not be temporary - from RFE/RL.

This news follows an earlier announcement in which the regime warned that women who refuse to conform to the official dress code should expect harsh treatment.

All women in Iran are supposed to cover their hair, refrain from wearing make-up and fingernail polish in public, and make sure their "ornaments" are fully covered - preferably in black. But as the weather warms up, female beauty makes its annual appearance in Iran and women on the streets can be seen wearing bright colors with wisps of hair showing, and - horrors - sometimes even a bit of ankle or a hint of a lovely body.

And as always, the dresscode crackdown was greated by howls of protest from Iran's fashionistas. Most confined their displeasure to making fun of the regime behind closed doors. But some were brave enough to express their views in public - such as the women and girls who took to the streets in Qom pictured below.

Saudi fashionistas: The real freedom fighters

In Saturday's Wall Street Journal, Pulitzer-prize winning Middle East reporter Karen Elliot House reports from Saudi Arabia:

The abaya [the black robe Saudi women wear in public] is something of a barometer of the status of women in this conservative Islamic society. In the late 1970s, when I first came here as a reporter, most Saudi women bowed to the demands of the religious authorities and covered themselves. But a growing number of young, educated Saudi women declined to wear abayas or even ankle-length dresses. Things turned much more restrictive in the '90s. The ruling royal family, seeking to appease religious leaders angry at the presence of U.S. troops, whom they branded as infidels polluting the heart of Islam, pretty much gave the so-called "morals police" free rein to harass women who dared not shroud themselves in black. Soon even Western women also were wearing abayas.

It is a subtle sign of the desire of Saudi women -- recently supported by King Abdullah -- for some small measure of independence and individuality that in recent years women have begun overwhelmingly to wear fitted abayas, many lavishly decorated with colorful embroidery or beads or both. This is despite complaints from the religious authorities that such decoration calls attention to women and undermines the very purpose of an abaya: to make a woman largely invisible.

So fashionistas, wherever you are, the next time someone tries to insinuate that you are a mere fashion victim, tell them: "No, actually I'm a freedom fighter."