Iran's morality police return, with new punishments for women who refuse to wear a headscarf
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Iran has redeployed its morality police, who force women to wear the hijab, nearly a year after the death of a woman in police custody sparked nationwide protests.
Iran has redeployed its morality police, who force women to wear the hijab, nearly a year after the death of a woman in police custody sparked nationwide protests.
Their reintroduction comes as many women have continued to violate the country’s strict dress laws, despite a heavy crackdown on the protests.
In Tehran on Sunday, morality police officers could be seen patrolling the streets in marked vans.
Footage circulating on social media meanwhile showed female police officers, clad in all-black chadors, berating and arresting women whose heads were uncovered.
As part of their bid to deter Iranian women and girls from removing their hijab, Iran’s Islamic rulers have also resorted to a series of new draconian measures in recent weeks.
Local media reported on Friday that a woman who had been arrested for defying the law had been imprisoned for two months and forced to wash the bodies of dead women in the central city of Varamin.
They must be declared “free of anti-social behaviour” before the sessions can end, the Etemad newspaper reported.
While the morality police withdrew, authorities took other measures to enforce the law. These included the closure of businesses whose staff do not conform to the rules, and installing cameras in public places to identify and penalise unveiled women
In what was reported to be the first sentencing that relied on evidence from CCTV cameras, one woman was sentenced to two months in prison and a two-year travel ban last week.
She was also ordered to undertake mandatory health checks after the judge ruling on her case said her behaviour to flout the dress laws was a symptom of a “disease” that “must be treated”, the Human Rights Activists in Iran non-governmental organisation reported.
General Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi, a police spokesman, said on Sunday that the morality police would resume detaining women seen without the hijab in public.
However, an official survey in 2021 found that more than 70 per cent of Iranian women are against being forced to wear the item of clothing.
Iran’s government blamed the protests on a foreign conspiracy, without providing evidence.
Ms Amini had been detained for allegedly violating the hijab rule, which applies to all women and girls over the age of nine.
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