An Iranian woman was pulled off the streets of Tehran by the ‘morality police’ because the lady was not wearing her hijab as per the provided instructions. Three days after the arrest, she was dead and it was said that she had a heart attack.
This 22-year-old woman was Mahsa Amini. This news has now given strength to countless Iranian women who are now on the streets burning their hijabs and cutting up their hair. These are the same women who have faced the wrath and worse picture of the Islamic Republic’s ‘morality police.
A senior researcher in the middle east and north America division at Human’s Rights Watch, Tara Sepehri Far says “It would be really hard to find an average or any average family who does not carry a story of interaction with morality police and many re-education centers, that is how present they are.”
These centers have been compared to detention facilities where women and sometimes men both are taken into account of custody when they fail to pace up with the modesty rules of the state. Under the roof of the morality police, women are given lessons about Islam and the many importance of the hijab. They are then forced to sign a pledge that they will abide by the state’s clothing rules and regulations before they are released.
The first of these morality police establishments was opened in the year of 2019. Agents of these centers, which have no basis in any law, detained women under the pressure of not complying with the state’s forced hijab.
Women here are booked under offenses, photographed, and later forced to take classes regarding the proper wearing of hijabs.
In the year of 1936, Reza Shah who was believed to be a pro-western ruler banned the hijabs and headscarves to modernize the country but later he was overthrown by the establishment who made the mandation again.
Such movements and protests are not new to Iran. anti-hijab movements like ‘Girls on revolution street’ in 2017 were protesting for the same cause.
The country is also very much divided on the thoughts of mandating for hijab. Research has shown that the number of people believing that the compulsion should be erased is increasing day by day. See How Anonymous hacks Iranian websites to show solidarity over Amini’s death?
