President's dress code for Iran visit stirs debate
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President Park Geun-hye takes part in an event wearing the shalya out of respect to local culture at the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, on March 5, 2015. / Cheong Wa Dae photo
By Kang Hyun-kyung
In February, weeks after the presidential office hinted at President Park Geun-hye’s state visit to post-sanctions Iran, an Iranian living in Seoul cautiously raised a question about a touchy issue — will Park wear a hijab when she visits the Muslim country?
The hijab is a sensitive topic. Some Westerners see it as a symbol of repression, whereas Muslims consider it a way of expressing one’s cultural and religious beliefs.
In Iran, women are required to cover their hair and neck in public. If Park does not wear a hijab during her stay in the Islamic country, the Iranian source, who declined to be identified, said her dress code could become a political football there. Opposition politicians would try to politicize the issue by characterizing it as cultural disrespect and put pressure on the ruling party and ask President Hassan Rouhani to take responsibility.
Iranian economist Mahyar Adibi, left, and Shin Jae-hyun, president of the Seoul-based consultancy West Asia Economic Forum
The Iranian source was insightful. While previewing President Park’s state visit to Iran, a government official told reporters on April 23 that Park would wear a hijab during her entire three-day visit to the Middle Eastern country. Park will leave Seoul for Tehran on Sunday for a summit with Rouhani, as well as a business forum between Korean and Iranian companies. She will be the first Korean head of state to visit Iran.
The aforementined official said the Korean government had already discussed the president’s dress code following a request from the Iranian government through a diplomatic channel, and it had been decided that she would cover her hair and neck out of respect for the Iranian culture and religion. The decision was made based on political considerations of Korea-Iran relations and the conservative Iranian culture, he said.
The media reports about President Park’s dress code, however, have stirred a debate.
Shin Jae-hyun, president of the Seoul-based consultancy West Asia Economic Forum, said President Park is head of state and, thus, should not be judged by gender.
“She is not an ordinary citizen,” he said. “She is the president. Considering her status, I’m not sure if her dress code is right.”
He said the Iranian and Korean governments had made a mistake with the decision of influencing her to wear a hijab. “I think it is diplomatically incorrect for Iran to ask the Korean president to wear a hijab,” he said. “I also think the Korean governmentresponse to such a request was wrong.”
Shin said foreign governments in general are not in a position to set dress code guidelines for visiting foreign leaders. “I think it would be OK if the Korean government made such a decision voluntarily to show its respect for the local culture there.”
Female politicians and officials from the West have followed the practice of wearing a hijab in Iran. Federica Mogherini, an Italian politician and high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Julie Bishop, Australian Foreign Minister, wore a hijab during their recent visits to Iran.
However, Shin said these female politicians’ dress codes shouldn’t be a reference for that of President Park because of the major difference in political mandates.
“Again, Park is head of state and a symbolic figure of the country, but Mogherini and Bishop are not in the top government positions of their countries,” he said.
President Park’s dress code for her Iran visit has stirred a debate, partly because she is the first female head of state to visit the country and, accordingly, there are no dress code precedents to which she can refer.
The different interpretations of the hijab are another source of the debate about President Park’s dress code. Opponents consider the hijab an oppressive symbol that disconnects Muslim women from others in the outside world, whereas proponents say it is a symbol of religious expression and needs to be respected.
The issue made headlines around the world in 2011 following the French government’s ban on the hijab. Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy linked the hijab to the cultural repression of women. “Burqas are not welcome in France,” he was quoted as saying. France, we cannot accept that women should be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity.”
His remarks drew criticism from Muslims, who considered France’s ban an extension of Muslim-bashing and a violation of freedom of expression and religion.
Turkey has also prohibited the wearing of the hijab in government buildings and universities.
Park’s dress code was not an issue during last year’s state visits to four Gulf Cooperation Council countries, namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
She did not wear a hijab during her visits to the Middle Eastern countries, except in the UAE, where she instead volunteered to wear the shalya during her visit to the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi out of respect to local culture. The shalya is a long rectangular scarf wrapped loosely around the head and tucked at the shoulders.
She did not wear a hijab during the summits with the leaders of the four countries, albeit her female aides did in Saudi Arabia, on the request of the Saudi Arabian government.
Masood, an Iranian employee of the Korean company Aztech, said there are subtle cultural differences between Iran and GCC countries, although they are Islamic countries.
Unlike in the GCC countries, he said wearing the hijab is mandatory in Iranian culture, that is, all women must cover their hair and neck in public. In Iran, he said two primary aspects determine the Iranian way of life — culture and religion.
“The Iranian public won’t care whether foreign women cover their hair and neck or not because they respect expats’ culture,” he said. “But politicians are different. They do care about the dress code in public, and they take it seriously because they abide by strict religious standards.”
Women in the Middle East wear different kinds of hijab, which Radpey said is another example of the slight cultural differences between Iran and other countries in the region.
Iranian women cover their hair and neck while leaving their face bare. However, depending on the culture, some women in the region wear a burqa, which covers the entire face and body, and some wear a niqab, which covers the face, except for the eyes.
Mahyar Adibi, an Iranian economist in a post-doctoral fellowship program at Seoul National University, said a pragmatic way of thinking would help settle the dress code issue.
He said that wearing a hijab or not does not appear to be a major issue that needs much discussion, considering that the primary purpose of President Park’s visit to Iran is to secure economic interests.
“The first-quarter economic growth in Korea showed a slowdown caused by both low domestic consumption as well as overseas factors, such as the lower growth rate of the global economic powerhouse, China,” he said. “The ruling Saenuri Party’s defeat in the April 13 elections is another negative factor for the economy.”
Considering such a grave economic situation at home, the Iranian economist said wearing a hijab could have been a really minor issue in the eyes of the president.
“I think the gains Korea can make if President Park’s state visit to Iran turns out to be successful are so huge that it could fully justify her choice of dress,” he said.