WOMEN IN PERSIA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 744, 17 August 1929, Page 30

WOMEN IN PERSIA

FORTUNES AWAITING FOREIGNERS MUCH WORK TO DO ■‘Excellent opportunities for work and adventure are waiting in Teheran for Englishwomen,” said Miss Palmer Smith, oE the British Legation at Teheran, recently, When she was on a week’s visit to England. “Any girl who can make hats or do dressmaking, hairdressing or manicuring, would find herselt welcomed there,” she told a reporter, "and she would have a happy and adventurous life, providing she had a thoroughly sporting nature and did not know the meaning of the word worry. “I have been there three years, and although 1 have only a week here now, 1 am eager to be back. The climate is so marvellous. The sun is always shining, and there is always plenty to do in the way of work and sport. "There are small fortunes to be made by competent hairdressers and manicurists. The Persian women have little to do except talk scandal and attend to their appearance, and they like to keep their new shingles in perfect condition. They are crazy over pretty clothes. In fact, the new regime by which ntost of the Persian men have only one wife instead of four is not due to either religion or morals. It has come about simply because the women, now that they are educated, demand Paris frocks, lipsticks, and all the luxuries of Western beauty treatment, and few men can afford to keep four women in Paris frocks.” Miss Smith contrasted the luxurious contented life of the Persian women with the hard, uncomfortable existence of the independent Russian women. “The Russian women are a pathetic sight.” she said. “They are poorly dressed, because clothes are dear, and all money has to be earned. Every person, man and woman, has to earn a living. No woman is allowed to wear a hat, as hats are considered a luxury, and they wear little shawls on their head instead. All feminine luxuries were forbidden at first, but now the women have insisted on having scents and lipsticks, and, as naturally, their menfolk like them to look attractive.- they have won the point, and the Soviet, which owns all the shops, now derives revenue from fa>-e powder and lipsticks. It Is still adamant about hats.”