# Mahmoud Ahmadinejad style of dress
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-style-of-dress/328211
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 27, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-style-of-dress/328211 "2005-10-27T21:59:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-style-of-dress/328211/1 "2005-10-27T21:59:41Z")
Why does Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, is almost always pictured wearing clothing found among Westerners except that he doesn’t wear a tie?
[link](http://images.washtimes.com/photos/full/20050627-021712-2575.jpg)
[link](http://www.npr.org/news/images/2005/jun/27/reuters/ahmadinejad_200.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-style-of-dress/328211/2 "2005-10-27T23:05:29Z")
Iranian conservatives in general disapprove of men’s neckties as being [too Western](http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0219/p06s01-wome.html):
> [@](#):
>
> On one side are young free-spirited Iranians, radicalized beyond politics against Iran’s Islamic revolution and hard-line rulers.
>
> One the other: Feared enforcers of the regime’s Department of Vice and Virtue, who routinely target improper garb, pop music, and the peddling of Western influence by selling men’s ties. […]
>
> His shop has been visited in recent days by Vice and Virtue officers. They insisted that neckties be removed from storefront mannequins, and broke a CD playing music by an artist, even though his work had been approvedby the Islamic Guidance Ministry.
The tie-less shirt-and-trousers-and-jacket look, although equally Western in origin, is more generally accepted (and in fact is quite common for white-collar males all over Asia and Africa).
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### Author:  [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-style-of-dress/328211/3 "2005-10-28T01:30:16Z")
> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> Iranian conservatives in general disapprove of men’s neckties as being [too Western](http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0219/p06s01-wome.html):
> The tie-less shirt-and-trousers-and-jacket look, although equally Western in origin, is more generally accepted (and in fact is quite common for white-collar males all over Asia and Africa).
I bet the buffoon doesn’t know how to tie a Windsor knot.
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-style-of-dress/328211/4 "2005-10-28T02:56:32Z")
So it’s sort of always a Casual Friday in Iran now?
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### Author:  [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-style-of-dress/328211/5 "2005-10-28T15:08:36Z")
Hmmm. For Sunnis, for a man to wear silk without a medical necessity was forbidden, and I knew a lot of devout Muslims who would therefore avoid neckties. Does Shi’a law have a similar prohibition?
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### Author:  [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-style-of-dress/328211/6 "2005-10-28T16:34:00Z")
Clearly the Ahmadinejad collar look is the Nehru collar of the decade…
… just as soon as the hot pop groups start incorporating Iranian sounds …
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### Author:  [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2005, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-style-of-dress/328211/7 "2005-10-28T18:24:13Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#):
>
> I bet the buffoon doesn’t know how to tie a Windsor knot.
I personally eschew anything less than a double windsor, although, in a pinch, a 1.5 windsor will suffice. Never anything less.