In reply to girlymonkey:
This is the second time this festival has been organised. Last time was 2 years ago.
A woman cannot go anywhere on her own. I tried to climb with Iranian women and we always had a man on tow. There is no room for private initiative. If you try you will just embarrass everybody. You cannot even go out of the compound to have a walk on your own.
As long as you keep to the rules, you can participate and go climb, but you have to keep in a group and always accompanied by a man.
When on the climb you may take the head scarf of to replace it with a helmet. It would be more polite to keep it under the helmet. You certainly have to put the scarf back on as you come off the rock and walk back to the compound as well as a long sleeve tunic to cover the bum.
All in all it is not too much of a hassle. Scarves are actually quite pretty! I did manage to clmb as much as I wanted.