: How Irans Morality Police Enforces a Strict Interpretation of Islamic Law #WorldNEWS In 2007, Pardis Mahdavi was 13 minutes into her lecture at a university in Tehran about gender and sexuality in

How Irans Morality Police Enforces a Strict Interpretation of Islamic Law #WorldNEWS
In 2007, Pardis Mahdavi was 13 minutes into her lecture at a university in Tehran about gender and sexuality in post-revolutionary Iran when the morality police stormed through the auditorium doors.
“Pandemonium erupted. I was…pulled off stage. I was frozen in a state of suspended animation and…turned to look at one of them who had raised a hand and then I blacked out,” Mahdavi says. Iranian authorities charged Mahdavi, who is provost of the University of Montana, with trying to foment a revolution. She was under house arrest for 33 days.
Much of Mahdavi’s research has focused on sexual politics in Iran, a large part of which entails the morality police, an entity that has faced increasing international scrutiny over their role in the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. (The E. U. and U. S. imposed sanctions on the morality police following Amini’s death and subsequent crackdowns on anti-government protests. ) Amini died in state custody after being arrested for “improper hijab. ” Her death sparked a sweeping movement in which many women and girls took their hijabs off and cut their hair.

Many Iranians believe that the morality police is a part of the state’s way of ensuring control.
“This has nothing to do with morality or with policing,” says Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of New-York based Center for Human Rights in Iran. “These are state security forces who are assigned… to harass and subjugate women and thereby show a constant demonstration of force. ”
What does the morality police focus on?
Iran’s morality police, also known as Gasht-e-Ershad (guidance patrol), primarily enforces laws tied to regulating Islamic dress. While that entails ensuring women are wearing the hijab, it’s not the only aspect of appearance they’re observing. “If
is too tight, if the body shows too much, if your sleeves are up, if your jeans are torn,” says Assal Rad, research director at the National Iranian American Council. “They will take you to a detention center…until someone comes and brings you the
. ”
Dress often remains the focus as it can be the most obvious issue to police, experts note. But they can also arrest and detain individuals for alcohol consumption, or for attending mixed gatherings of males and females not related to each other. “It’s about interfering in people’s personal life,” Ghaemi says.
Part of why Amini’s death triggered such an emotive response was that she was punished for having some of her hair showing. “It’s the fact that it could have been anybody; millions of Iranian women wear this hijab loosely.

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