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"The morality police [...] were established under president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, [and] began patrols in 2006."

I didn't realize they were formed that recently; I thought it would have been created at the start of the regime.

Yashar Ali (@yashar) on Twitter has been covering these protests extensively. I'm waiting for him to comment on this, but it doesn't appear he's awake yet.

discuss

itshossein|3 years ago

The morality police is here to stay (and it's not only about hijab!). They just renamed the department to "public safety police". It's said that the hijab patrols (gasht-e ershad) is gone. Not officialy yet. They are about to decriminalize having no hijab. No further arrests, but there will be a fine for those who have no hijab (believed to start from around $15. The minimun wage is $1/h here. The median is ~$2/h).

There was no hijab law for the first 5yrs of the regime. The normal police officers were to enforce the hijab law afterwards. It wasn't effective enough so they came up with the idea of having "hijab patrols" by the so-called morality police.

Nursie|3 years ago

Yeah the explicit morality police were established then and may be dissolved now, but it's not going to change the behaviour of (for example) groups like the Basij, a paramilitary youth group who roam the streets enforcing 'morality' through street violence.

I don't believe this represents any real change.

(edit -- One group or another has been violently enforcing dress codes in Iran since the revolution itself, the disbanding of any particular instance of this seems of little consequence, I have Iranian family and I have heard stories dating back to that time.)

ashwagary|3 years ago

>may be dissolved now

I doubt they will ever be dissolved by public or foreign pressure, especially since they consider the protests illegitimate.

smugma|3 years ago

There were morality police when I visited in 1993. My mom was stopped because she was wearing sheer, not colored, pantyhose and her ankle was visible. I was pulled aside from her (I was a young teenager). She argued with them for a few minutes, supposedly yelled at them, and then we were on our way.

BBC this morning: Iran has had various forms of "morality police" since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but the latest version - known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad - is currently the main agency tasked enforcing Iran's Islamic code of conduct.