چادر

چادر (châdor) is the full-length body cloak that, more than any other Iranian garment, signals a particular religious identity. The word means “tent” in Persian. The garment, in modern Iran, means many things at once.

What it means

چادر is a large semicircular cloth, usually black for outdoor wear, draped over the head and body and held closed at the chin or with the teeth. It covers from the crown of the head to the ankles. The garment leaves the face open and is worn over regular clothing. Persian uses چادر for the garment and also for a literal tent (چادر مسافرتی, châdor-e mosâferati, “camping tent”); the two meanings share a single word.

چادر is distinct from روسری (rusari, headscarf), حجاب (hejâb, the covering concept in general), and مقنعه (maqna’e, school veil). It is the heaviest of these in cloth and in cultural reading.

How to use it

• چادر سر کرد (châdor sar kard) “she put on a chador”
• چادر سیاه (châdor-e siâh) “black chador”
• چادر گل‌دار (châdor-e gol-dâr) “floral chador” (worn at home or in some regions)
• چادری (châdori) “a woman who wears chador” (used as identity marker)

Cultural context

Many Iranian women wear chador by choice as a personal religious commitment. Many resent its imposition in contexts where it is required: حوزه (howze) seminaries, certain government buildings, shrines such as Imam Reza in Mashhad and Hazrat-e Ma’sume in Qom, and some workplaces. Both groups exist in the same country, often in the same family. The garment is also generational: women who came of age before the 1979 revolution often wear chador only in religious contexts; women who came of age after may wear it daily by choice or never wear it at all.

The word itself is Pure Persian, not an Arabic loan. Literally “tent,” from the older Persian verb root for stretching or pitching. The same word covers the camping tent, which Iranians find linguistically natural and outsiders find surprising.

Etymology

Pure Persian (پارسی سره). From Middle Persian châdar, related to a verbal root meaning “to stretch out, to spread, to cover.” The connection to a tent is original: a tent is a cloth stretched over a frame, a chador is a cloth stretched over a body. The word predates Islam in Persian. Borrowed into Urdu, Hindi, and Turkish in similar form.

Related

See حجاب (hejâb) for the broader covering concept, روسری (rusari) for the everyday headscarf, and مقنعه (maqna’e) for the school veil.