By Tim Clark
20th May 2009

Authorities in Greece have launched a campaign to stop female tourists from wearing stiletto heels at some of the country’s key archaeological sites for fear they are damaging monuments.

A sticky situation: The Odeion of Herod Atticus, Acropolis is one of many sites affected by the number of visitors leaving their mark…

As the summer season begins and theatrical and operatic performances are set to be performed at many of Greece’s ancient sites, heels are being banned for concert goers and visitors.

Eleni Korka, Director of Greek Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities said: ‘Female visitors must wear shoes that do not wound the monuments.

‘These monuments have a skin that suffers and people must realise that.’

A set of guidelines coming into force from next January will also ban food and drink at on-site performances and forbid entry to anyone who is drunk.

‘There is great pressure on the ministry to grant the use of archaeological sites [for shows] between April to October but this is a schedule which the sites cannot bear. There must be a limit,’ Korka added.

Greek archaeologists are concerned that key sites such as the Roman-era Odeon of Herod Atticus in Athens and the Classical-era Epidaurus Theatre in the Peloponnese region are showing the strain of continuous use, both in terms of wear caused by show equipment and the passage of thousands of spectators.

In 2006, the ministry stopped performances in August at the Odeon, saying the site had seen ‘excessive use’ and was in need of maintenance.

A year earlier, maintenance crews found and removed an accumulated 27 kilos (59 pounds) of chewing gum stuck under the marble seats.

May 22, 2009 at 11:51 AM | 2 Comments

If you’ve decided that this is the summer you’re going to party in Greece, you’d better check your packing list and take out your high heels.

Officials in Greece are trying to get stiletto heels banned at important archaeological sites because these evil heels are damaging the ancient stuff. To quote Eleni Korka, a director taking care of such ancient sites:

Female visitors must wear shoes that do not wound the monuments. These monuments have a skin that suffers and people must realise that.

Too many tourists is a bit of a problem at many of the ancient sites in Greece – a few years ago they did a big clean-up of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus theater in Athens and removed 59 pounds of chewing gum stuck under the seats in the process. For some reason they haven’t thought of banning chewing gum a la Singapore, but the anti-stiletto movement is growing strong.

Forsake lipstick ‘to avoid rape’

Ian MacKinnon, south-east Asia correspondent
The Guardian,
Wednesday June 25, 2008
Article history

Women in a northern Malaysian city ruled by conservative Islamists are being urged by the city’s authorities to forsake bright lipstick and noisy high-heels “to preserve their dignity and avoid rape”.

Pamphlets have been distributed recommending that Muslim women shun heavy makeup and loud shoes. The municipal officials in Kota Bharu, capital of Kelantan state, which is run by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic party, stressed that the code was merely advice for women who wish to follow the “Islamic way”.

The party’s brand of Islam – mocked by Malaysian liberals as “Taliban lite” – has already decreed that supermarkets must have separate checkout lines for men and women. Couples caught sitting too close together on park benches are hunted down by the city’s moral enforcers and fined up to £285 in the city’s sharia courts.

A directive on dress a decade ago decreed that Muslim women must wear non-transparent headscarves that cover the chest, along with loose-fitting, long-sleeved blouses. There are fines of up to £75 and as many as 20 women are punished for breaking the rule every month.

Azman Mohamad Daham, a spokesman for the municipality, said: “Our minimum guideline is they must wear headscarves.” The goal of the modesty drive was to prevent rape and safeguard the women’s dignity, he said.

12:16am UK, Saturday May 23, 2009

Theme park Alton Towers has banned children from wearing high heels after a string of audacious bids to cheat their way onto height-restricted rides.
Corkscrew roller coaster ride at Alton Towers
Shoe should be so lucky: New scanners will stop kids cheating height restrictions
The theme park is also introducing airport-style scanners for some of its more extreme rides ahead of half-term week.
The moves follow ingenious attempts by children to trick their way onto roller-coaster rides, which have 1.2m and 1.4m height restrictions.
Park bosses have revealed that youngsters are increasingly wearing high heels to get onto rides, as well as multiple pairs of socks.
Some have resorted to filling their shoes with objects while one vertically-challenged youngster even attached a pair of flip-flops to his trainers with masking tape.
Another child – a young girl – appeared to have swapped shoes with her mother in order to make the height restriction.
Ride at Alton Towers
Height fun: Oblivion ride
From Saturday, May 23, high-heels of more than an inch will be banned.
Alton Towers is also planning to buy shoe X-ray scanners similar to those now used in airports across the UK.
They will be deployed on some the park’s bigger rides such as Oblivion and Nemesis.
Morwenna Angove, the resort’s Sales and Marketing Director, said: “Of course we understand the children’s disappointment when they are too short to ride.
“But we’ve had to introduce these measures because they were coming up with some intriguing ways of trying to defy the height restrictions.
“Whilst this ban may appear extreme, we are confident it will reduce the number of desperate attempts to gain a centimetre or two.”

A Scottish MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament) Bill Aitken has called for a ban on high heel shoes for people who live in a flat(apartment) in Scotland because of the noise made when walking in them disturbs the people living below .

he claims the need for this ban has increased because more and more people are installing wooden flooring instead of carpeting. he also recomends that people wear carpet slippers to ensure the noise is kept to a minimum.

There has even a booklet been published on the subject called “Neighbor noise between flats” The influence of laminate and hardwood flooring”.

They say the the Devil makes work for idle hands but this is ridiculous tax payers money well spent again. OH! to top it off men are not excluded from this proposed new law lol so i`d better bin the sling backs but i think i will keep my french maids outfit until they ban them too, and your all invited to my party but please bring your own carpet slippers…..jimmy