In a well-known shop in northern Tehran, Mohammad Javad chose the first tie he would ever buy, as this piece of men's clothing has long been banned in Iran, where it is considered a symbol of Western decadence.

This 27-year-old dentist decided to buy a tie in order to dress up and impress the family of the woman he wants to marry, in his first meeting with them.

"In our society, putting on a necktie is like putting on a muzzle before the Covid pandemic, as people look at its owner strangely and even negatively in some neighborhoods. It's a cultural issue," the young man said, while the seller was adjusting his suit.

"I wouldn't wear them every day, but I find that they add elegance to a man. It will take some time before the current look changes, but that change is beginning," he added.

This high-end store on Nelson Mandela Boulevard displays an assortment of ties in a variety of colors, including cotton and wool.

"We sell about 100 of them per month. We import them mainly from Turkey, but some of them are made in Iran," said the deputy manager of the Zagros store, Muhammad Arjomand, 35.

"Customers buy them to wear at parties or at their work," he explained. He noted that "two out of ten people passing through this neighborhood wear a tie, and an increasing number of people are adopting it."

As for the Zagros sales manager, Ali Fattahi (38 years old), he indicated that the protests that erupted after the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, days after she was arrested by the morality police for violating the strict dress code for women, "had no effect" on sales. the shop.

After the Islamic Revolution that overthrew the Shah of Iran in 1979, the Iranian clerics who took power under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini banned the necktie, which in their eyes symbolized submission to Western culture, according to a trader who asked not to be named.

He explained that the new ruling class saw the tie as a sign of decadence.

Under their suit jackets, ministers, diplomats, senior officials of government departments or heads of state enterprises wear shirts with open or closed collar buttons, or Mao collar.

Lawyer Masoud Mallabana pointed out that "wearing a necktie is certainly not a crime, neither according to the constitution nor according to Sharia, but there are restrictions on clothing in certain places, such as television."

Neckties were absent from storefronts for decades, but they returned to them during the reign of reformist President Mohammad Khatami between 1997 and 2005.

To choose his tie, Jawad came with his mother, who not only encouraged him to take the step of buying it, but also asked the seller to teach him how to tie it.
This 50-year-old female employee commented, "At one time, some sought to cancel the necktie, and the reason given was to reject any sign of Westernization. It was also free to cancel the suits and return to the traditional dress that was adopted during the time of the Qajar dynasty (1794-1925). Of course, this is impossible.”

On the same street, Mahran Sharifi (35 years old), who runs a store for the French brand "Pierre Cardin", noticed the attraction of young men to the necktie, which "gives prestige."

"Often young men come to choose a suit and we offer them to try on a tie," explained Sharifi, who hung a century-old picture of his grandfather, a tailor like his father, wearing a tie on the wall.

The necktie is almost mandatory for Iranians working in embassies, but most of them take it off when going out into the street so as not to be ridiculed.

Sadiq (39 years old), who works at the Japanese embassy in Tehran, said, "I tie my tie when I arrive at the embassy so that I don't attract people's eyes if I put it on the street. They think that whoever wears it is a foreigner or has a very formal meeting with foreigners."

"It's a matter of dress code. It's not written anywhere, but when you start working at the embassy, your colleagues tell you that you're supposed to wear it," he said.