Iranian authorities announced a new campaign on Sunday targeting women’s clothing in public, the AP reports. The so-called moral police are back on the streets 10 months after the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini after arrest – a case that sparked national and international protests.
Authorities have temporarily eased the crackdown as they struggle to contain mass protests that have also called for the ouster of the ayatollahs who have ruled Iran for more than four decades.
Over 500 protesters were killed and nearly 20,000 detained. But many women continued to flout the imposed dress code, especially in the capital Tehran and other cities.
There has also been speculation that the morality police will be disbanded, although Tehran has warned that requirements for women will remain in place.
Throughout the crisis, authorities insisted that the rules had not changed. Iran’s clerical rulers see the hijab as a key pillar of the Islamic revolution that brought them to power, and consider the more casual attire a sign of Western decadence.
On Sunday, General Said Montazerolmahdi, a police spokesman, said the morality police would resume notifying and then detaining women who do not wear the hijab in public. In Tehran, the men and women of this police force now patrol the streets in the distinctive vans.
Late Saturday, police arrested Mohamed Sadeghi, a young and relatively unknown actor, following comments on a video on social media showing a woman being detained by police for morals.
“Believe me, if I see such a scene, I might commit murder,” he says, and for these words he was probably arrested.
The United Nations’ fact-finding mission in Iran last week called on Iranian authorities to halt the executions of people sentenced to death for taking part in the anti-government protests that rocked the country last year. This statement was made by the head of the mission, Sarah Hussein, before the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Several people were hanged for taking part in the protests, and Iran’s leaders blamed their Western enemies for inciting them. The mission also called for “the release of all those detained for exercising their legal right to peaceful assembly and reporting on protests.”
In May of this year, Iran executed three men who Iranian authorities said were involved in the deaths of three members of the security forces during the protests. The international community continues to closely monitor developments in Iran, demanding respect for human rights and an end to violence.
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2023-07-17 05:55:00
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