Laws once mandated distinctive dress for outcaste minorities

Evidence

The clothing of outcaste groups (including ethnic and religious minorities, members of certain occupations and persons with certain diseases) was often regulated by law. Sjoberg tells us that the Parsi minority in the Persian city of Y ezd were forced, until the 1880s, “to twist their turbans instead of folding them, [were] denied various colors, and [were] prohibited rings, urn brellas and other items” ( 1960:134 ). Their situation was typical. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 242

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s article on sumptuary laws and dress as class/identity/political signaling.
• ADDENDUM: Material on legally enforced minority dress regulation extends the ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ article’s catalog of dress-as-status control.