Farewell to Iran’s vice police, but the veil remains

the end of the terrible Police M.oral This is the first victory for demonstrators who have been protesting in Iran for almost three months, but everything seems to indicate that the obligatory veil will remain, and only the methods of its imposition will change.

After nearly three months of protests, more than 400 deaths and thousands of detainees, the Iranian authorities are beginning to give in in an attempt to control the mobilization unleashed by the death of the young Mahsa Amini after being detained precisely by the morality police for wearing the Islamic veil incorrectly.

But the disappearance of a body that has treated women like criminals for years for not covering their hair with a veil, wearing high boots, or not properly buttoning their coats does not seem to guarantee the freedoms that protesters are asking for with a cry of “woman life, freedom.

modern methods

“The mission of the patrols moral police completed,” Ali Janmohamadi, spokesman for the Center for the Promotion of Virtue and Prohibition of Vice, said, echoing a statement made a few days earlier by Attorney General Mohamad Jafar Montazeri.

But Janmohamadi confirmed that his body, which monitors morality and customs in the Persian country, is looking for more “modern” ways and “new technologies” to apply the laws of chastity and the hijab.

These claims have been endorsed by other authorities who say a new policy will be announced in the coming days regarding the wearing of the veil, mandatory since 1983.

Hijab is one of the symbols Islamic Republic Founded in 1979 by Ayatollah Ruholah Khomeini, who defined clothing as the “flag of revolution” and without which women were “naked”.

MP Hossein Yalali has given some clues about the authorities’ plans, which do not appear to be softening the clothing policy as many, especially protesters, expected.

“You can notify people who are not wearing the hijab through text messages and urge them to abide by the laws,” the MP and cleric told the Sharkh newspaper.

If, after this notification, the woman still does not wear the veil, she moves on to the “warning stage”, which did not explain what she was, and finally to the punishment stage.

“It is possible that the bank account of a person without a veil will be blocked,” said Yalali, a member of the parliamentary commission on culture.

In fact, the deputy said that “we will increase the punishment for poor wearing of the hijab” after the revision of the regulations.

Now a “bad hijab” is punishable by a fine and imprisonment for up to two months.

Prior to the riots, authorities had already indicated they were exploring the use of technologies such as facial recognition cameras in subway stations and buses to identify women who were not veiled, without providing further details.

In fact, Iranian authorities are already using traffic cameras to issue fines to women who drive without the obligatory hijab and are identified by vehicle license plates.

Thus, all indications are that alternatives to Vice patrols will be sought to control and punish Iranian women who do not comply with the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.

In its current format, the Vice Police has existed since 2005, but before that it had different incarnations, and this is what will happen again now.

call gestures

It is hard to find young women who have not suffered skirmishes with the vice police for lack of “chastity” or “bad hijab” and have not been fined or forced to attend re-education courses.

Since the protests began, white vans with green stripes and “Guidance Patrol” (Gasht-e Ershad in Persian) of the morale police have disappeared from the streets, leading to new freedoms.

More and more women take to the streets of the Persian country without a veil as a sign of defiance and civil disobedience, which was unthinkable two months ago.

But the disappearance of the Vice Police alone does not seem to calm some of the protests that have been calling for the end of the Islamic Republic for weeks now, shouting “death to the dictator” in reference to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. (EFE-Jaime Leon)