bike day attire for iran- help?
 

Hi,
i am getting a bit worried about what to wear during bike days in iran. we will be on and off the bike all the time, so it needs to be something that covers me from neck to hip, with long sleeves. so i am taking a loose dress with my bike jacket over the top. it willl not be stylish. but will it be ok and not frowned upon for looking scruffy?
And then the really hard bit to work out is whether i have to wear a hijab under my helmet all day, or whether i can take my helmet off and stick a scarf round my head quick enough not to cause offence. does anyone have any experience of this? how bad is it to be seen (as a foreign girl) without a headscarf, even if it is just for a brief second?

hope someone knows,
cheers guys!

There are a couple of blogs with people riding through there .. the Langs for one makes interesting reading .. brining two or more and trading them off might be a good idea .. if they are colourfull?

nico, my wife is going to wear one of those elastic type neck tube thingies and when she removes her lid pull the back of it up over her head while the front remains under her chin and replace with a scarf if we are stopping for longer than a fag and fuel.

Pete

Hi, Georgie from The Sorebums had some good advice on this. I've found there blog - have a look at what she did in Iran at http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/
Good Luck!
Tam

Covering up in Iran
 

Hi,

I was in Iran in 2000 and bought the cheapest lightweight button up the front long coat I could find and put my bike jacket over it. As for taking my helmet off, I have a silk balaclava which I always wear. So when my helmet comes off my hair is not exposed, then I just put a scarf on and pull the balacava off. Ken and I really enjoyed Iran and found the people very friendly and helpful, I hope you do too.

There is a picture of me in my attire on our blog under "Fashionable in Iran" October 2000.

Hope this is of some help
Carol Duval
www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/duval

In the below link, you can find two different ride reports from Turkish riders with their women pillions.
Although these reports are in Turkish, photographs may answer your question.

Ikiteker Motosiklet Fan Kulübü Web Sitesi
Ikiteker Motosiklet Fan Kulübü Web Sitesi

Ertan

Iran-wear
 

Haven't been to Iran but *have* been to Afghanistan.

Take two very large pieces of very light fabric -- what's called a "wax" in Africa. When you get off your bike, you wrap one very loosely around your waste as a skirt over your bike pants (tightly, waxes make really attractive travel skirts outside of Iran, FYI), and use the other as a head scarf and upper body covering. I second the recommendation for one of those tubey head scarf thingies (in fact, take two, in case you lose one). Your helmet will fit over it easily, and when you take your helmet off, make sure your hair is hidden under the tubey head scarf thingy, and then throw over your second wax on your head (like this), you will meet most Iranian cover requirements. You can get waxes at most import clothing stores, "hippy" type stores, Indian and Pakistani-import stores, etc.

For off-the-bike touring, have a look in the women-of-a-certain-size section of your local department store -- I found great light weight, long-sleeved, LONG shirts that I wore in Afghanistan over t-shirts, long-sleeved tight shirts or long underwear. They top needs to go WELL past your butt and your crotch. With the head tube thingy and the wax as a head scarf over that and my upper body, I had no problems.

If there are any Indian or Pakistani-owned shops near you (many really large cities in the USA have such), look for a men's shalwar kameez -- the top makes an EXCELLENT women's top in a country requiring maximum coverage (outside of a full body hijab or burqa).

The keys are:
-- cover all skin
-- cover your hair
-- cover your figure
-- cover your butt

Actually, that last one is always important for me. :rolleyes2: