May 10, 2024
The regime has announced that the Morality Police have been reconstituted and sent out into the streets to enforce the hejab law which they have done with occasional fights in the streets as women have strenuously resisted enforcement. The authorities had reduced enforcement efforts more than a year ago because there were so many uncovered women that enforcement became difficult.
Furthermore, more women began resisting arrest and the videos of Morality Police, mostly women, subduing uncovered women and brawling in the streets were exceedingly embarrassing for the regime. The regime then focused on somewhat indirect enforcement. For example, officers wrote down the license plate numbers of cars carrying uncovered women and the owners of those cars then got notice of a fine in the mail. Clearly, the regime was trying to find a way to enforce the law without face-to-face confrontations in the streets.
The authorities also announced they would be using security cameras installed to watch traffic in order to pinpoint uncovered women who would then be identified by facial recognition software. But that simply wasn’t workable. The main enforcement mechanism appears to have been closing shops seen serving women without hejabs.
There is no confrontation with the uncovered women. The idea is to draft shop owners as enforcement agents, inducing them to say they won’t serve a woman with uncovered hair. Shop owners were livid and objected loudly. Many in the regime suggested just abandoning enforcement, arguing that it caused the regime too much trouble and alienated too many citizens.
Polls show that even many women who willingly adhere to the hejab rules do not believe the dress code should be made mandatory or that non-adherents should be punished like common criminals. But several weeks ago, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi spoke publicly, demanding full enforcement of the dress code and insisting that every woman must abide by it.
That seems to have forced the police into action. The Majlis has been struggling to enact a new law on “hejab and chastity.” But the Council of Guardians, which must review all legislation for compliance with the Constitution and Sharia law, has repeatedly vetoed what the Majlis has sent it. So, there is still no law on the books.
But under pressure from the Supreme Leader, stern enforcement has resumed. It is impossible to know if more women are physically resisting arrest, though there is no shortage of videos to show that the authorities had better hire more muscular female cops to enforce the dress code. In lieu of more muscle, one video showed a cop using a stun gun on a woman before dragging her into a police van. In what may have been the biggest example of resistance, the police confronted an uncovered woman in the Haft-e Tir Metro station.
Others in the station began harassing the police, who took the woman into a room away from the crowd. Video shows the crowd growing into hundreds of people chanting and demanding that the police release the woman. Finally, the police did just that and the crowd dispersed. That confrontation continued for some time and it seems likely that the police telephoned for assistance.
The fact that the police gave in to the crowd hinted to many that their superiors refused to send out a busload of cops to help them. That would mean the desire to avoid confrontations continues to be a concern of senior officers. But that could also be a message to the public to challenge the police in larger numbers.
The reconstituted morality police appeared on the streets for the first time April 13 to carry out what the police named the Noor (Light) Plan, a name that seemed to offend more than it impressed. The authorities said the Noor Plan was being instituted nationwide. On April 20, reports said police were massed at the entries to the University of Art and Amir Kabir University in Tehran where they did not arrest uncovered students but barred them from entering the campus in another seeming effort to avoid physical confrontations with uncovered women. (Male students in t-shirts and short-sleeved shirts were also said to be barred.)
Former President Hassan Rohani days later voiced his displeasure with what the police were doing. “Is this really how the police are supposed to enforce moral codes? Have they been trained for this?” he asked. Reflecting on the goals of the Islamic revolution, he asked whether it was appropriate to use force to make women cover their hair.
He emphasized that it was important for government to treat the people with “dignity and respect.” Khamenehi has come down firmly, saying that Islamic Iran must require that women cover their hair. He said, “Hejab is an integral component of Sharia law, applicable to all Muslim women.
It is a legal mandate that transcends personal beliefs, demanding compliance from both adherents and non-adherents of Sharia.” That has largely silenced those who have argued that the regime should encourage wearing a headcover but not punish those women who decline to do so.
However, recently it has emerged that the legislation approved by the Majlis would authorize the authorities to directly dip into a woman’s bank account and withdraw the amount of a fine for non-compliance. That has set off a firestorm of opposition, including from some who support the hejab mandate.
The direct withdrawal of fines imposed by the courts was seen as a neat and clean way of enforcing the law while avoiding embarrassing physical confrontations or the simple refusal of women so fined to pay up. But even some economists have loudly opposed the idea, saying many families may close their bank accounts out of fear the state could raid them not just for hejab fines but for any other reason someone might conjure up. And mass closures could further undermine the banking system, which already must grapple with poorly financed banks.
The 12-man Council of Guardians, which must vet all legislation passed by the Majlis for compliance with Sharia law and with the Constitution, vetoed the first version of the law entitled “Protection of Family Through Promotion of Hejab and Chastity Culture” last September, saying it used terms that were too vague for judges to deal with.
On March 28, the Council vetoed the fourth version the Majlis has passed, though the council did not say what it was objecting to this time. No one believes the veto is geared to the underlying basis of the bill that hejab-wearing must be enforced but rather to fears of public reactions to enforcement that have dominated the debate since Khamenehi said head coverings must be enforced.
The concern over face-toface confrontations is not mere conjecture. On March 29, the state news agency reported that a “morality police office” in Hamadan was attacked and suffered “severe injuries” sufficient to be admitted to a hospital. The very next day in Esfahan, another police officer was “assaulted” in Naghsh-e Jahan Square. His (or her) condition was not reported.
The Majlis is not openly debating the bill and the full chamber has no say in what is going on. The legislature has invoked Article 85 of the Constitution, which allows a Majlis committee to write legislation and put it on the statute books for a time-limited trial without the full Majlis ever voting on it. If approved by the Council of Guardians, the Hejab and Chastity Law would go on the books for three years before coming back to the Majlis for re-authorization or expiration.
The text imposes a fine of 30 million rials ($50) for a first time offender. A second conviction would draw a much stiffer fine of 240 million rials ($400). Repeat offenders would also face possible imprisonment for terms of six months to three years.
One problem with all this is that a police officer must confront a non-compliant woman on the street to identify her before any fine can be imposed. And it is at this point that the woman can respond angrily and often draw support from other pedestrians.
The police have tried to avoid such face-to-face confrontations by focusing on cars, noting where a woman is seen inside without any head-covering, and jotting down the license plate number. The fine can then be assessed on the owner of that vehicle.
Reportedly, many car owners are just ignoring fine assessments mailed to them. The authority to directly enter their bank accounts and withdraw the amount of the fine would bypass that problem.
Khamenehi has also categorized non-compliance as an issue forced on Iran by foreign enemies. “I have received credible reports that they [foreigners] hired some women to break the rules of society and appear in public without hejab,” he said, adding, “The enemy intends to regress the country to the prerevolutionary era.” The law requires all women aged 9 and above to cover their hair.
The original draft of the new hejab and chastity bill was drafted by the Raisi Administration and submitted to the Majlis May 24, 2023, which has now been struggling with it for almost a year.
