Sociological analysis of women''''s daily and religious clothing among religious minorities (Case study: Zoroastrians and Mandaeans)

In all societies dress and adornment play symbolic, communicative and aesthetic roles. As Wilson puts it, “Dress is always unspeakably meaningful”. That is why, “issues like social identity, body, gender, appearance or self- representation lie at the center of any definition of fashion and clothing”. If it is true that clothing is an important signifier of identification with subcultures, we can claim that women, in Iran, have made their own feminine subculture through using fashionable clothing styles. Zoroastrian and Mandaean women constitute the statistical population of the study. The research method was descriptive-analytical and the method of data collection was library and field. In this article, the clothing of women of Zoroastrian and Mandaean religious minorities in celebrations and rituals as well as in daily life will be examined and the similarities and differences in clothing and the affecting factors will be discussed. This study presents these two minority ethnic groups view of cover as cultural and identity-building media. The results indicate that Zoroastrians and Mandaeans, with a uniform and religious cover with its own characteristics, have a tendency to preserve their ethnic identity. Also, they owe way of dressing, despite the religious differences, there are similarities with colors and beliefs in the clothes and if the tendency to traditional, ethnic and religious dress still exists among the minorities of Iran, it is only limited to their private ceremonies and gatherings, and they have the same dress in their daily lives as other Iranians.