Hard-line clerics ruling Iran have recently decided to reactivate the so-called “morality police” enforcing the strict hijab rules. The morality police had suspended its activities for about 10 months following the widespread protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died while in police custody for wearing her hijab improperly.
Meanwhile, many reformist politicians are pondering whether to submit their candidacy in next February’s elections, since it is almost certain that the Guardian Council will disqualify their candidacies. The death of 21-year-old Amini last September sparked massive protests almost in all major cities and towns in Iran that went on for months, while thousands of women refused to wear the compulsory hijab.
In the past, several Iranian women who had been arrested by the morality police reported horrific experiences including torture, sexual abuse, rape and beatings. The protests which resulted in the death of about 500 protesters, represented the biggest challenge to the Iranian theocracy and forced the regime to withdraw the “morality police” from the streets. Many people hoped that the hated morality police enforcing the strict hijab rules was disbanded.
However, these hopes were dashed on Sunday, when Saeid Montazeralmahdi, a police spokesman, stated that the morality police will resume their duties “notifying and then detaining women not wearing hijab in public. Police would initially issue warnings to non-compliant women and refer those who persist in breaking the law to the judicial system.”
He added that police patrols were now operating on foot and in several vehicles to arrest people whose headscarves are misplaced or whose behaviour is deemed inappropriate in the Islamic Republic. Enforcement, he admitted, has been lax due to ongoing protests.
What is worse is that from now on violations of the mandatory hijab law will be treated by many judges as criminal offences. Each case is different based on what the judge declares as the punishment. In most cases, the penalty is jail for up to six months, which may be converted into a monetary penalty. In other cases, the penalty imposed is a number of lashes, while a court has sentenced one woman to the ritual washing of corpses in a cemetery for a month, and another woman to hundreds of hours of cleaning government buildings. A new development causing concern is that in recent months, the regime started implementing facial recognition technology on public transport and has shut down shopping malls etc.
