Women shop in the old main market in Tehran, Iran, in October 2022. Iranian police announce a new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf.
Wahid Salmi/AFP
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Wahid Salmi/AFP
Women shop in the old main market in Tehran, Iran, in October 2022. Iranian police announce a new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf.
Wahid Salmi/AFP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Iranian authorities on Sunday announced a new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf and the morality police returned to the streets 10 months after the death of a woman in their custody. sparked national protests.
The morality police largely receded after the death of 22-year-old Mohsa Amini last September, as authorities struggled to contain mass protests calling for the overthrow of the theocracy that has ruled Iran for more than four decades.
The protests largely petered out earlier this year after a violent crackdown in which more than 500 protesters were killed and nearly 20,000 arrested. But many women continued to wear the uniform, especially in the capital, Tehran, and other cities.
The vice police were rarely seen patrolling the streets, and in December there were some reports – later denied – that they had been disbanded.
The authorities insisted throughout the crisis that the rules had not changed. Iran’s clerical rulers view the veil as a mainstay of the Islamic revolution that brought them to power, and consider casual dress a sign of Western decadence.
Police spokesman Major General Saeed Muntazer Al-Mahdi said on Sunday that the morality police will resume notifying women who do not wear headscarves in public and then detaining them. In Tehran, the men and women of the morality police have been seen patrolling the streets in pickup trucks.
Late Saturday, police arrested Mohammad Sadeghi, a young and relatively unknown actor, in a raid on his home that he apparently broadcast on social media. Earlier, he posted a video in response to another video on the internet showing a woman being detained by the morality police. “Believe me,” he said, “if I saw such a scene, I might have committed murder.”
He was arrested for encouraging people to use weapons against the police, said the website of the semi-official Hamshahri newspaper affiliated with the Tehran municipality.
The battle over the headscarf became a powerful rallying cry last fall, with women taking a leading role in the protests. The demonstrations quickly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s clerical rulers, whom young demonstrators accuse of corruption, repression and out of touch. The Iranian government has blamed the protests on a foreign plot without providing evidence.
Many Iranian celebrities have joined the protests, including prominent directors and actors from the country’s famous film industry. A number of Iranian actresses have been arrested After appearing publicly without a headscarf or expressing support for the protests.
In a recent case, artist Azadeh Samadi was banned from social media and ordered by a court to seek psychiatric treatment for “antisocial personality disorder” after appearing at a funeral two months ago with a hat on her head.