Iranian hardliners to crack down on women's dress

Hardliners warned on Thursday they would crack down on women who flout Iran's strict Islamic dress code, which obliges them to cover their hair and disguise their figures.

"Those who violate the Islamic dress code ... should be strongly confronted," Morteza Bakhtiyari, the head of justice department in Khorasan-e Razavi, told an Iran daily.

Female judges and mobile courts would be used to control women who ignore Islamic rules, he said. Iran requires women to cover all but their faces and hands with loose dresses.

Offenders face fines, lashes, or even imprisonment. The dress code was relaxed only under former president Mohammad Khatami, which was opposed by religious forces.

"A number of measures will be taken against them soon," Gholamreza Nasirinejad, a police official in Tehran, told Mardomsalari newspaper. He did not give further details.

Women's rights activist in the country say the laws openly discriminate against women.

" They would be better solving other social problems, such as unemployment and addiction," a woman photographer said.