She simply instructed me to wear baggy, neutral-colored clothes, socks and a headscarf. Modern Iranian women dress a lot like modern American women, with one important difference. In public, they must always wear a long coat over their regular clothes and are required to cover their heads with a scarf. It is the law. Their coat buttons can be decorative and it is perfectly acceptable for women to allow wisps of hair to frame their faces.
Many females carry briefcases to and from work as they click down the sidewalks in high heels.
S o, on my second day in Iran, in the tourist city of Bam, I began making changes. I switched from my shalwar kameez to Levi's covered by a stylish long coat that I'd purchased in a local market. From the back, my hair covered by my headscarf, some of my fellow travelers said that I looked like a local. Other travelers thought I looked like a Mennonite, possibly because I had chosen a black coat instead of one of the many other colors available. The important fact is that I was considered properly dressed.