Iran: 80,000 new moral guardians for headscarf checks
ARCHIVE - A woman stands in front of a burning car tire and shows the Victory sign during a demonstration in Tehran. Photo: Uncredited/AP/dpa/Archive image
Keystone
Iran wants to mobilize 80,000 new moral guardians in the capital Tehran alone in order to more consistently enforce compliance with the Islamic dress code and headscarf requirement for women."The new forces are to combat social indifference and any tendency towards secularism," explained Ruhollah Momen-Nassab, head of the Authority for the Promotion of Ethical Norms. This initiative aims to achieve a "profound social transformation" in Tehran, according to Momen-Nassab, according to the news portal Fararu.
The headscarf requirement is considered one of the ideological pillars of the Iranian state. According to Islamic regulations, women in Iran must wear a long jacket and a headscarf to cover their body contours and hair. However, especially since the nationwide protests in 2022 and the rise of the women's movement, more and more Iranian women are flouting the rules.Headscarf law in parliamentIslamic hardliners wanted to counter the increasing disregard for religious regulations with harsher punishments and even passed a new headscarf law in parliament. This provided for heavy fines, exclusion from public services and even prison sentences for women who violate the law.However, both the government of President Massoud Peseshkian and the influential Security Council stopped the implementation of the controversial headscarf law. Both feared new protests like in 2022. Peseshkian even warned that violent enforcement of the regulations could alienate the population from Islam itself."Woman, life, freedom"The women's movement under the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom" was formed after the death of the young Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini. She had been arrested for an alleged violation of the headscarf requirement and died a few days later in police custody. Her death sparked nationwide and international protests - and plunged the Islamic system in Iran into the worst crisis in its history.
