Iran plans to mobilize 80,000 new morality police officers in Tehran to enforce compliance with Islamic dress codes that require women to wear their headscarves more consistently, according to an official.
“The new forces are intended to combat social inequality and any tendency towards secularism,” Ruhollah Momen-Nassab, head of the Authority for the Promotion of Ethical Standards told Fararu news site.
This initiative aims to bring about a “profound social transformation” in Tehran, Momen-Nassab said.
The headscarf requirement is considered one of the ideological cornerstones of the Iranian state. Under Islamic rules, women in Iran must wear a long jacket and a headscarf to cover the shape of their bodies and their hair.
But more and more Iranian women are disregarding the rules, especially since the nationwide protests in 2022 and rise of the women’s movement.
Islamic hardliners sought to counter the increasing disregard for religious rules with tougher penalties and passed a new headscarf law in parliament subjecting women to heavy fines, exclusion from public services and prison sentences for repeat offenders.
However, both the government of President Masoud Pezeshkian and influential Security Council halted the implementation of the controversial headscarf law, fearing it could lead to renewed protests like those in 2022.
Pezeshkian even warned that violent enforcement of the regulations could alienate the population from Islam itself.
The women’s movement, which rallies under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom,” formed after the death of the young Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini who died in custody after having been arrested for allegedly violating the headscarf requirement.
Her death sparked nationwide and international protests that roiled the nation, plunging Iran’s Islamic system into its worst crisis to date.