On Monday, Britain announced that it had imposed sanctions on Iran’s so-called morality police, alleging that the organisation had used violence and jail threats to regulate Iranian women’s attire and public behaviour.
Iranians protested around the country when Mahsa Amini, 22, died while being held by the morality police last month. Protesters demanded the overthrow of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Britain said it had sanctioned the morality police as a whole, as well as its leader, Mohammed Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi, and the Head of the Tehran Division, Haj Ahmed Mirzaei, citing her murder and the ensuing demonstrations.
Here are some details about the force, also recognised by the US, known as the Gasht e Ershad or guide patrols. The force is entrusted with holding those who fail to adhere to Iran’s strict dress code. “Promote virtue and inhibit vice” is its stated goal.
The Islamic Republic’s senior clerics have commanded that Islamic morals be observed, and this is what the morality police, a division of Iranian law enforcement, are tasked with doing.
The usual unit comprises of a van with a mixed-gender staff that patrols or waits in crowded public areas to enforce improper behaviour and attire.
When a person is detained by the morality police, they are usually given a warning or, in rare instances, transported to “correctional facilities” or a police station where they are given morality lectures before being returned to their male relatives.
- Fines are occasionally imposed, while there is no set standard for monetary penalty.
- In Islam, the term “hijab” refers to modest clothing. Women in Iran are required to cover their hair and wear long, baggy clothing to hide their figures in accordance with sharia, or Islamic law.
Many women of various ages and backgrounds wear tight-fitting, thigh-length jackets and brilliantly coloured scarves that are thrown back to reveal a lot of hair. Decades after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, religious officials still struggle to implement the law.
The Basij, a paramilitary group that was first organised to fight in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, frequently makes up and supports the morality police.
Every Iranian institution has a Basij presence to keep an eye on people’s appearance and conduct because higher education is when Iranian men and women first interact in a mixed-gender setting.
