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, and
industry, are among the most important issues on which scholars and researchers have focused
in cultural, social, and historical studies. The reigns of the Safavid and Qajar dynasties are two
significant periods in the history of Iran, and the clothes that people wore during those periods
are indeed unique and worthy of scrutiny. The reign of the Safavid dynasty was the beginning
of a powerful Shia government, and the reign of the Qajar dynasty marked the initiation of
Westernization in Iran. These two notions turn them into vitally important topics as far as
historical and social explorations and inspections are concerned. Factors such as the travels of
Naser al-Din Shah Qajar are among the features that influenced the way in which governmental
preferences and propensities changed. The variety-seeking quality as well as the formal and
typical 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 (in
Persian a ruband), which have remained almost unchanged over time. The clothing of Qajar
women, 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 is
thus as follows: while transitioning from the Safavid era to the Qajar era, how has women’s
clothing 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 the
study with regard to the context of social and historical changes .The objective of the present
research is to examine the impact of government policies on the development of women’s
clothing during the reign of the Safavid and Qajar dynasties .The investigations done as a
part of the present research show that neither the tendency towards Shi’ism nor the spread of
Westernization has been singly able to have a major impact on the development of the customs
associated with inside and outside clothing of average women during the reign of Safavid and
Qajar dynasties ;and ,features such as comfortableness ,beauty ,and protection of safety and
privacy have indeed been the determining factors with regards to a variety of clothing .This
matter can elucidate the constancy and consistency of the impact of introversion on women’s
clothing during the reign of the Safavid and Qajar dynasties, despite the existing positive and
negative constraints.