After I registered for the Tehran Marathon (IrunIran), which will be held on April 7th 2017, I started looking around on the internet for the right (islamic republic law appropriate) running gear, starting with a sports hejab (a headscarf). I was happy to find special running hejabs on capsters.com (a Dutch company), made of really light stretchy fabric. They look like they will stick to your head forever. Good. Constantly adjusting your scarf (or anything else) is not what you aim for during a 42km run. Ordered one. Found it on my doormat a couple of days later, yay!
Lots of ladies in Tehran wearing the mandatory headscarf look lovely wearing it. Although a lot of women don't want to wear it, they wear it gracefully and it looks like a fashion statement in stead of a burden to these women. I am not one of them. I look kind of ridiculous with a scarf and this sports hejab is most certainly not going to change that...Too bad.
To avoid surprises during the marathon it is smart to test everything you will be wearing on race day on a longish run, so today, the day former president Rafsanjani died, I decided to take my new sticky sports hejab for a spin! I wore a mandatory scarf (and manteau, a long trenchcoat) for two years in Iran, but I have never worn one in the Netherlands obviously, so it felt awkward going outside wearing it. It is different wearing a scarf in a world where every woman is wearing one, it is like a uniform and you don't stand out. Where I run now I am basically the only one running with a hejab. Of course we have quite a bit of women wearing scarves here in the Netherlands, but to be honest, I never come across many people running with a headscarf on my runs (there's one lady living somewhere close to my place wearing a niqab and riding a city bike though...). And this scarf wearing thing is still very confusing to me, every country/culture/social class/generation seems to have their own rules. In the gym in the Hague my boxing partner is the lovely Shaima, a young, strong and sporty Dutch/Maroccan girl wearing a scarf, but not in the gym. In the gym she wears a little top, tights and she displays her beautiful long hair. She is happy wearing her scarf whenever she wants and that's it.
It was still early, about 4 degrees Celsius and a bit dark outside on a Sunday morning and I hoped people would think I was wearing a hoody. I always listen to music or a podcast while running, so I was in my own little bubble anyway. I ran from my home through The Hague to the beach in Scheveningen and back, 17km. My hejab didn't move one millimeter, great! Some people run a marathon dressed up as Superman or a ballerina (I was overtaken by a BANANA during the Amsterdam marathon!), they keep me going... And of course all those sporty women competing in international races representing their islamic country wearing a lot more fabric compared to their fellow sports women. I wonder how many men would run the marathon if they had to wear what we women have to wear now in Iran.
