Iran’s morality police return in a new campaign to impose Islamic dress on women

Iranian authorities have announced a new campaign enforcing Islamic dress codes for women, with morality police patrolling again after a 10-month hiatus.

Public uproar: Nationwide protests erupted after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in custody of the morality police last year.
* These protests calling for the overthrow of Iran’s theocratic government largely declined after a heavy crackdown, with more than 500 protesters killed and nearly 20,000 detained.

Back to enforcement: Despite authorities’ insistence that dress rules hadn’t changed, the morality police have been largely absent from the streets until now.
* Iran’s clerical rulers view the Islamic headscarf (hijab) as a key part of the Islamic revolution and associate more casual dress with Western decadence.
* Officer Saeed Montazerolmahdi announced that the morality police would resume enforcing these rules, detaining women not wearing hijab in public.

Notable incident: In a recent development, actor Mohammed Sadeghi was arrested after expressing his outrage online at a video showing a woman being detained by the morality police.
* The actor, who is relatively unknown, was charged with encouraging people to use weapons against the police.

Implications: This struggle over the hijab, an Islamic headscarf, became a strong rallying symbol last year, with women in the forefront of protests.
* These demonstrations soon escalated into calls to overthrow Iran’s clerical rulers, whom the mostly young protesters accuse of being corrupt, repressive and out of touch.
* Some Iranian celebrities, including directors and actors, have joined these protests.

View original article on NPR

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