Iranian state-run media outlets reported yesterday that Iran’s morality police will resume patrols to ensure women obey dress codes and cover their hair in public.
Fars News Agency (FNA) and Tasnim News Agency cited Seyyed Montazer Al-Mahdi, a spokesman for Iran’s Law Enforcement Command, as saying that police will restart vehicle and foot patrols across the country from Sunday.
During the patrols, officers will first warn women who are not complying with the rules, Seyyed Montazer Al-Mahdi was cited saying.
If they disobey orders, police may then opt for “legal action”, he added.
Western media reports say it comes 10 months after a young woman, Mahsa Amini, died in custody following her arrest in Tehran for allegedly breaking the dress code.
Her death sparked nationwide protests that rocked the country, posing one of the biggest domestic threats to Iran’s ruling clerical regime in more than a decade.
CNN says authorities responded violently to suppress the months-long movement, during which witnesses said the morality police had virtually disappeared from the streets of Tehran.
The Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran, previously known as the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran or Disciplinary Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran, abbreviated as FARAJA, is the uniformed police force in Iran. The force was created in early 1992 by merging the Shahrbani, Gendarmerie and Islamic Revolutionary Committees into a single force. It reportedly has more than 60,000 police personnel, including border guard personnel, and is under the direct control of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
