a chÄdor or chÄdar (), also known variously in english as chadah, chad(d)ar, chader, chud(d)ah, chadur and naturalized as  is an outer garment or open cloak worn by many iranian women and female teenagers in public spaces. chador has ancient origins, at least from achaemenid times. a chador is a full-body-length semicircle of fabric that is open down the front. this cloth is tossed over the woman's or girl's head, but then she holds it closed in the front. the chador has no hand openings, or any buttons, clasps, etc., but rather it is held closed by her hands or tucked under the wearer's arms. ==the history of iranian women's clothing==  fadwa el guindi, in her book on the history of hijab, locates the origin of the persian custom in ancient mesopotamia, where respectable women veiled, and servants and prostitutes were forbidden to do so. the veil marked class status, and this dress code was regulated by sumptuary laws. achaemenid iranian women in art were mostly veiled, and the first representÂ­ation of chador is found on ergili sculptures and the "satrap sarcophagus" from persian anatolia. the earliest written record of chador can be found in pahlavi scripts from 6th century, as a female head dress worn by zoroasÂ­trian women. it is likely that the custom of veiling continued through the seleucid, parthian, and sassanid periods. veiling was not limited to women but was practiced also by the persian shahs. upper-class greek and byzantine women were also secluded from the public gaze. el-guindi believes that the islamic hijab is a continuation of this ancient mediterranean and middle eastern custom. european visitors of the 18th and 19th centuries have left pictorial records of women wearing the chador and the long white veil. thumb|left|military commanders of the iranian armed forces, government officials and their wives commemorating the abolition of the chadors in 1936 the 20th century pahlavi ruler reza shah banned the chador and all hijab in 1936, as incompatible with his modernizing ambitions. according to mir-hosseini as cited by el-guindi, "the police were arresting women who wore the veil and forcibly removing it." this policy outraged the shi'a clerics, and ordinary men and women, to whom "appearing in public without their cover was tantamount to nakedness
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