November 27, 2020
covered while inside a car is being enforced and many people are unhappy.
Iranian motorists are increasingly expressing public anger at being summoned to the offices of the morality police for allegedly violating the law that requires women to abide by the dress code while in a car.
The loudest and angriest people are those who say they were identified in error and have been forced to spend hours clearing their names.
The regime decided a few months ago that a car was a public place and not a private place and that women must therefore be covered while driving or riding in a car.
The morality police now watch the streets and take down the license numbers of cars seen with uncovered women. The person in whose name the car is registered is then summoned.
After receiving a text message, the owner of the vehicle has 10 days in which to report to the morality police and sign a letter committing not to violate the hejab rules again. If the owner ignores the text message, his or her car can be impounded. Similarly, if those who sign the letter are spotted breaking their commitment, their cars can also be impounded.
The police force strongly argues the inside of a car is not “private” and the dress code applies. But clerics don’t all agree.
Mohsen Gharavian, a prominent cleric, has said that, based on the opinions of Islamic scholars, a car is private property—meaning that what happens inside the car is the owner’s business and no one else’s.
However, Mohammad-Taghi Rahbar, a former Majlis deputy and influential cleric, told Middle East Eye that, in terms of privacy, vehicles were not on the same footing as homes, where residents cannot be seen.
Those who are disciplined by the police tend to quote clerics who say a car is a private place. But the loudest objections come from those who say there was no uncovered woman in their car at the time cited on the summons.
Hoda Dolatshahi, who studies in Italy, said that, upon her arrival in Tehran sometime after the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, she received a warning from the police, which she found puzzling seeing that her car had been parked at her mother’s house for months.
Arian Ehteshami, a school teacher, told Middle East Eye that his wife had not moved her car once in the past three months, but she had still received the “silly text message.”
In reaction to the criticism, Tehran police chief Hossain Rahimi said the initiative was being enforced all across the country and a small number of mistakes was inevitable.