IRAN: Morality police launch crackdown on clothing and hairdos deemed un-Islamic

Iran's puritanical guardians of morality have stepped up their cultural war against those who dress too modern for their tastes, sharpening class and social tensions just two weeks before the anniversary of the nation's disputed presidential elections.

Days after Friday prayer leaders delivered fiery sermons in which they called for a clampdown on women dressing immodestly, morality police squads began cracking down on youngsters sporting figure-hugging outfits or hairdos deemed un-Islamic.

On Saturday, police stopped and checked 30 cars in east Tehran. Some of the vehicles were seized, and owners had to retrieve them from a police parking lot after paying fines, the Iranian Labor News Agency reported.

The news agency also published a series of photos from the first days of this year's annual anti-vice campaign, which  usually falls in the beginning of the summer when people start wearing lighter clothes in hot weather.

Images show young women with tight, colorful short coats and locks of hair showing from beneath their head scarves being stopped by police officers.

"They were intolerable for us and we launched our campaign on Saturday," Tehran's police chief, Hossein Sajedinia, was quoted by ILNA as saying. "According to our opinion polls, people are happy with our activities. We will keep fighting ... until we reach the desired result." 

Meanwhile, Iranian television is airing programs encouraging conservative dress. In one, shown on state TV a few days ago, a female lawmaker veiled from head to toe sat on a panel and explained her reasons why young women and men, especially university students, should adhere to Islamic dress code.

Guardian Council chief Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati even said in his Friday sermon last week that students should be advised to dress conservatively if they want good grades. 

Students who don't observe the code should be made to change into proper clothing before being allowed on campus, he added.

Twenty-two-year-old Shahlah, a law student at Payame Nour University in Tehran, told Babylon & Beyond that a black-clad, fully veiled female inspector has been patrolling the campus for the last week, making sure no hair was sticking out from head scarves and that coats weren't too tight.

Away from the bustling streets of the capital and the campuses, plainclothes members of the Basij militia were also said to be on the lookout for improper dress in the mountains above Tehran, where many youngsters go hiking on weekends.

In Darakeh, a popular hiking spot north of Tehran, one hiker said there was an unprecedented presence of police armed with batons preventing modernly dressed young girls and boys from hiking.

According to Sajedinia, police officers have been given cameras to film dress-code violators in the streets.

The clips, says the police chief, will be used as evidence against them.

"Everything is documented," ILNA quoted him as saying.  "We film the badly veiled women and keep the films and photos in their files. Then we report the cases to courts for final decision. Nobody can deny any wrongdoing."

Stylish young women and men aren't the only ones being targeted in the crackdown. The shops that sell to them are also feeling the heat.

Ali, a storekeeper in central Tehran, told Babylon & Beyond that his shop and five other clothing stores in the area had been shut down by the morality police because they sold body-hugging short coats for women deemed provocative by the anti-vice squad. The vendors were warned by the police to sell only long coats and keep customers with daring outfits out of their stores, according to Ali.

"We were told by the moral security police to go to court and the judge will decide how much of a fine we will have to pay to reopen," he said. "From now on we can only sell [coats] with a minimum length of 110 centimeters [about 43 inches] and we must not display them in a provocative way. Boys with spiky and fashionable hair and very short sleeves ... are not allowed in our shops."

Despite the intensity of the clampdown in recent days, some doubt it will achieve much. In past years, people have simply waited for things to cool down before dressing up again.

"They can't do anything," said Saeedeh, 36, who works as a bookkeeper in downtown Tehran.  "At the most, [the morality police] can enforce Islamic hijab in the main streets. As soon as we get away from them in side streets and alleys and in our parties, we dress as it suits us."

-- Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran and Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Middle and bottom photos: Women wearing figure-hugging outfits and showing hair from beneath their head scarves are at risk of being stopped in the annual clampdown on immodest dress in Iran. Top photo: A young woman is stopped by a police officer. Credits: Top and bottom, ILNA; middle, Getty Images

Comments

[Mick]

This sort of Taliban style repression scam never works and will only further serve to hasten the end of an unpopular regime. And even many in the regime itself inclusive of president Ahmadinejad are opposed to the morality "police". This sort of interference into people's lives is horrid and it is all a money making scam for a cash strapped isolated regime. People can be fined for dressing in a particular way. And this has nothing at all to do with Islam, it is a scam to defraud people of money in the name of a "religious duty" that doesn't exist - read the Koran and you see there is nothing on dress code whatsoever.

[Verballistic]

Reply to "Marie Devine":

Spare us your sanctimonious diatribe about how morally polluted the U.S. and England are, unless you broaden your definition of moral pollution to include the oppression of women and non-Muslims that goes on in EVERY single Islamic nation:

* Saudi Arabia prohibits women from driving and other basic freedoms like choosing what their daily wardrobe. I'm not advocating women in public with skimpy outfits...far from it, but the notion that a women must cover EVERYTHING except the top half of her face is ridiculous overkill.

* Pakistan, Afghanistan and other fundamentalist Islamic nations routinely have "honor killings", where male family members punish & even KILL female family members for behavior deemed "un-Islamic".

*Egypt has a MAJOR problem with brutalizing & killing of Coptic Christians by Muslims and they cannot even get help from the anti-Christian government/police.

*Iran is one of the most oppressive nations of ALL, with details already given in the article above.

So next time, make sure to mention the countless injustices & moral pollution of Islamic lands when you start one of your anti-Western tirades...I'm SURE the Kuwaiti mother who posted right after you will appreciate equal time for mentioning injustices like those done to her son as well.

[sabiha aljasem]

i am a Kuwaiti mother who is visiting AL to share her son the ceremony of his graduation from usc, news came from Kuwait that my brother has been arrested and put in jail because he used to write articles criticizing the royal family and the prime minister ,so he is considered as the first writer who is put in jail in Kuwait.last year because he wrote against the Iranian influence in Kuwait ,one of the newspaper in Kuwait which is considered as (Iranian supporter) claimed that los angels times news paper put my brother name as one of the people who arranged the stealing from Baghdad after the american invasion,any way i want just to inform you that this newspaper claimed things not true about los angeles times and i wonder do you know about it?and i wish you read more about my brother case he is considered as one of the top writer in kuwait and he is in prison simpley because he exsepresd his ideas in his site.

[Marie Devine]

In all holy books the God of the whole earth commands modesty and honoring the laws of the land if they are in agreement with God's word. Iran and other Islamic nations etc. must be careful they do not exceed what God commanded through their prophets.

Influencing the clothing of the youth is a first step to the take over of a nation. It creates rebellion among the youth and in time if not stopped clearly, the nation is taken over by the influence of Satan instead of the influence of God. When we ignore God's word; that is Satan's sign he has authority to entice them, enslave them and steal their families from them by breaking up families with each going separate ways. The United States and England are prime examples of degeneration of purity in a nation that does not set God's word as the standard. Divine-Way.

[Trenchant Commentator]

Meanwhile, North American feminist organizations are spending lots of time ignoring the suppression of their Muslim sisters or, alternatively, arguing for a woman's right to choose slavery and submission aver equality and freedom.

A lark was singing in Berkely Square...

[a_drop_in_the_ocean]

Ladies and Gentlemen

Welcome to 21st century Iran.

A formerly prosperous and proud nation, now governed by a bunch of clowns.