Iran - my Outfit

Let me share my Iran outfit with you...

... I was wearing this most of the time during our stay because I did not really have a variety of clothes. I bought one dress before we left but it was not really practical so I ended up wearing this yellow and blue outfit with the blouse/coat that I borrowed from my friend.

Before going to Iran I thought that I have to cover myself much more and I was afraid that I will not get my visa when the officers will see a single hair of mine on arrival. So I only brought wide pants with me and one huge shirt dress (which is cute when worn with a belt but I left the belt at home because I thought it would be way to sexy to wear it with a belt ;)). Well it turned out that rules are actually not that strict - its important to cover your behind and its important to have a scarf somewhere on your head. Thats it. Most of the women I saw wore skinny jeans with formfitting dresses on top. Plus they used loads of make up! Most of them were actually much more styled than the women here in Germany!

Of course you do also see loads of women covered completly in huge black clothes, but you mainly see old women doing this. I saw just a few young ones who were completly covered, whereas most of the younger once were very fashionable. 

What I found intersting to hear is that Iran is one of the countries with the most plastic surgeries per person. I saw a lot of women with plasters on their noses and I found out that these women just got a new nose. We discussed why so many women make plastic surgery and we came out with two hypothesis: one is that because they cannot wear the clothes they want and because they have to cover their body, their face is even more important to them so they put more emphasis on a perfect face. The second is that the young people believe that they cannot get a job even though they study hard so they focus more on outer appearance than on anything intellectual (because so many of the well educated people in Iran are jobless). Maybe its also a mix of the two or maybe its something totally different :) 

When I got to know new young people the first thing they did was showing me pictures of themselves in pretty dresses from weddings or other parties. To me this was somehow strange but also intersting, as it seemed like they really identify themselves to a large extent through their outer appearance. In Germany, quite in contrast, many young people identitfy themselves rather through their career/the internships they made/their grades at uni/their work experiences or even their salary (I do not say this is better in any sense - I have problems with both!) 

As you may notice from what I wrote, my stay in Iran gave with loads of food for thought. I was and am thinking about many differences between my country and Iran, loads of things I liked much better there and some things I like much better here. I love it when I come back from a holiday and I look at my country and the society I live in, from a completly different angle (and after evey vacation from a different one).

I will leave you with this for today and I wish you a most wonderful weekend! Do you have any nice plans? Well if not, take your time to think about what you think you identify yourself through and share your thoughts with me - is it outer appearance? Or skills? Or intellect? Or love? 

Sending you all much love! Happy weekend!