Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's moral crackdown has widened its focus from stylishly dressed women to curvaceous shop-window mannequins, a newspaper has reported.

Morals police have banned shopkeepers from showing unveiled dummies and lingerie in their windows.

And men were now forbidden to sell women's underwear, Sharq newspaper said on Tuesday.

"Using unveiled mannequins that reveal their bodies' curves is banned," it quoted part of a new police manual as saying.

Shops breaking the rules risk closure and losing their trading licences.

Lawmakers are debating an Iranian dress code, advocated last month by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who called for a national costume that avoided European models.

"A national costume will be designed for men and women based on Islamic and national criteria," conservative deputy Fatemeh Alia was quoted as saying in the Siyasat-e Rouz daily.