November 14-2014
The Majlis approved legislation Monday allowing the Basij to help with the enforcement of the dress code by telling women when their garb is not compliant with the law.
The new legislation does not allow private groups of street thugs to enforce the law, as the original and highly controversial draft did.
The Basij is like a state militia group that comes under the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guard). It is comprised of part-timers like the US National Guard.
The new law says the Basijis may enforce the law only verbally, by telling women when their garb is non-compliant. It does not give them arrest authority.
The law does not, however, say who would train or oversee the Basijis enforcing the dress code to make sure they are correctly interpreting the law.
The new law passed the Majlis on a vote of 152 to 69 with 13 abstentions.
Many in Iran charged that the original draft of the bill with its provision for private citizens to enforce the dress code acted as a spur encouraging the rash of incidents in Esfahan where men have thrown acid on women not deemed properly clothed.
The last reported acid attack was in mid-October. The huge national uproar since then may have discouraged whoever was behind the attacks.
The attacks have been uniformly condemned by left and right and ultra-right.
The final bill as passed is far less radical than the original draft, but it nonetheless makes enforcement of the dress code a national priority. President Rohani has opposed compulsion with regard to the dress code, but was repudiated by the Majlis.
Even President Ahmadi-nejad opposed enforcement of the dress code, once saying dismissively that he had “better things to do.”
Ahmad-Reza Radan, the deputy chief of the National Police, last week said no one had been arrested. With no further attacks reported since mid-October, the public furor appears to be simmering down.
