Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
Imperialist Fashion: The Necktie
George Ajjan has an amusing item on Why Iran's President Ahmadinejad never wears a tie. Ajjan heard this from an unnamed Iranian friend:
Shortly after the revolution...the tie itself began being associated with "Western imperialism", especially after Ayatollah Khomeini branded a large group of intellectuals (who were less religiously zealous than he would have liked) as "tie-wearing cronies of the West" and essentially branded anyone wearing a tie as being Western influenced... Gradually, as Khomeini's legacy became a bit less overbearing, regular people stopped caring... ordinary people now wore ties on a regular basis. I myself for example, always wore tie at work in Tehran, as did many of my colleagues. I would actually make a point of wearing a tie outside as much as possible, to do my bit...
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H. Kotilainen/AFP/Getty Images
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