An Analytical Study on the Impact of Safavid and Qajar Governments’ Cultural Policies on the Development of Women’s Clothing

Clothing and its surrounding areas, such as its related customs, aesthetics, andindustry, are among the most important issues on which scholars and researchers have focusedin cultural, social, and historical studies. The reigns of the Safavid and Qajar dynasties are twosignificant periods in the history of Iran, and the clothes that people wore during those periodsare indeed unique and worthy of scrutiny. The reign of the Safavid dynasty was the beginningof a powerful Shia government, and the reign of the Qajar dynasty marked the initiation ofWesternization in Iran. These two notions turn them into vitally important topics as far ashistorical and social explorations and inspections are concerned. Factors such as the travels ofNaser al-Din Shah Qajar are among the features that influenced the way in which governmentalpreferences and propensities changed. The variety-seeking quality as well as the formal andtypical developments of these two periods were mostly represented through women’s clothing.The outside clothing of city women in the Safavid era included a white chador and veil (inPersian a ruband), which have remained almost unchanged over time. The clothing of Qajarwomen, however, underwent more change due to interactions and connections with Europe;nevertheless, they still had a black chador and a white ruband on. The research question isthus as follows: while transitioning from the Safavid era to the Qajar era, how has women’sclothing changed? Given its quiddity ,the present research is categorized as a qualitative study.The method used here is descriptive-analytical ,assessing developments in the samples of thestudy with regard to the context of social and historical changes .The objective of the presentresearch is to examine the impact of government policies on the development of women’sclothing during the reign of the Safavid and Qajar dynasties .The investigations done as apart of the present research show that neither the tendency towards Shi’ism nor the spread ofWesternization has been singly able to have a major impact on the development of the customsassociated with inside and outside clothing of average women during the reign of Safavid andQajar dynasties ;and ,features such as comfortableness ,beauty ,and protection of safety andprivacy have indeed been the determining factors with regards to a variety of clothing .Thismatter can elucidate the constancy and consistency of the impact of introversion on women’sclothing during the reign of the Safavid and Qajar dynasties, despite the existing positive andnegative constraints.