March 15, 2019
Iranian “morality police” fired warning shots in a Tehran neighborhood February 15 when a crowd tried to prevent them from arresting two women for not wearing headscarves. It was believed to be the first time the police had fired shots in response to angry citizens challenging their arrest of women for “bad hejab.”
The incident in the northeastern Narmak neighborhood ended with angry Tehranis tearing the door off a police car, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported. Many were astounded that the state news agency reported the confrontation.
“Morality police warned two young women who did not have proper hejab. Within a few minutes, a group of citizens gathered around to prevent the transfer of the two women [into custody],” a police official told the news agency.
“When the two women left the [police] car, the crowd also dispersed, and the issue was over,” the official said, without acknowledging that any shots were fired.
Video of the incident posted on social media shows a large crowd shouting and cars using their horns before a series of shots are heard.
A picture of the detached car door later circulated on Twitter.
Over the years the dress code has been enforced with varying strictness, with periods of relative tolerance interspersed with severe crackdowns. The firmest enforcement usually comes in the spring when warm weather prompts more women to cover up less than in the winter months.
For the past 14 months, many women have forcefully challenged the law, pulling off their headscarves, standing on something high, and waving their scarves in the air.
Some women are now using a smart phone app to avoid morality police posts. The app shows the locations of morality patrol posts that have been sighted.
Holly Dagres, a fellow at the Atlantic Council and editor of the Iran Source blog, said: “We’ve seen this kind of pushback for years—women yelling at the morality police and telling them to piss off, and members of the public sometimes intervening.
“These situations are becoming more and more prevalent because social media are there to document what is going on and that gives more Iranians an incentive to push back.”
