Hats Off (But Dresses On) to Our Kurdish Feminist Brothers

[MADem]

3. Not good in the city.

There used to be just ONE escalator that was open to the public in Teheran, in a department store. A kurdish woman lost half her dress in the damn thing and they had to shut it down and tear it apart. She was lucky she wasn't killed!

They put a guy in front of the escalator for awhile, who "educated" people on how to get on it, and what to do when you got to the top. It was a common sight to see people lined up waiting to get on, while one person screwed up their courage to take that first step....and then, at the top, they'd fall on their asses because they didn't know how to get off.

As for peeing, that makes sense and is characteristic of the region. It also used to be a very common thing to see with women in chadors--they'd straddle the jub (which is a semi-open sewer/drainage arrangement; not as bad as it seems because the air is dry and it doesn't rain overmuch, but sometimes when it does they need drainage) and TCB, then move off. Public restrooms were a challenge in some neighborhoods. Middle class people wouldn't do this, but the poor and the country folk didn't hesitate. Out in the country, people did just do their thing by the side of the road. One politely averted one's eyes!