Standby Judges In Iran's Morality Police Patrol Vans
Maryam Sinaiee
Iran International
Rights activists and lawyers fear the presence of standby judges in morality police vans that made a reappearance in the streets of Tehran Sunday.
Iran International
Rights activists and lawyers fear the presence of standby judges in morality police vans that made a reappearance in the streets of Tehran Sunday.
Speaking to Dideban-e Iran news website Monday, lawyer and women’s rights activist Shima Ghoosheh said the new move smacks of wartime measures.
“We can’t send a judge to make a ruling there and then and carry out the law. This is in opposition with all of the principles of human rights, rights of defendants, due process and logical principles that any rational person abides by,” she said.
“I’m not sure if they even have as many judges as they have patrol vans, or if they can hold field courts inside these vans. We don’t even have something as a field court [in Iranian laws],” she said.
The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) linked Tasnim news agency reported the news of the standby judges, in place to decide whether women who have refused to abide by the compulsory hijab rules on the streets should be detained or could be released with only a verbal warning.
Iran's hijab police street patrols have again appeared in the streets of Tehran and some other larger cities after months of laying low, for the fear of igniting another round of anti-regime protests. But their comeback has once again roused fear and hatred on Iran’s streets.
The death of a young Kurd, Mahsa (Jina) Amini, in the custody of morality police in September, sparked nationwide protests that lasted several months. The 22-year-old had received fatal blows to the head at the time of her arrest.
Hundreds were killed and thousands were arrested by security forces during the protests which somehow subsided after around four months. Since then, however, many women have chosen to disobey the rules of compulsory hijab and also as a means of demonstrating their opposition to the regime.
Former reformist lawmaker, Fatemeh Rakei, said the reappearance of the morality police defies logic, given the controversy which ensued following the death of young Amini. She called the body an “illegal entity” in an article she penned in the Etemad newspaper.
Rakei who has always worn the hijab, also pointed out that many Iranian citizens, including women who wear the hijab by choice, as well as religious men, are opposed to forcing the hijab and religion on people and warned that the return of morality police patrol could cause tension amid ever worsening economic hardships once again.
The mass wave of hijab refusal has left the regime at a loss. In spite of brutal crackdowns, women continue to walk in public places uncovered, in defiance of the mandatory rules which have been in place since the Islamic Republic was declared in 1979.
Hardliners have been using a language of both threats and supplication about the ever-increasing defiance. Speaking at an event Monday, IRGC Commander Hossein Salami continued to push the morality argument, associating uncovered women with the likes of prostitutes and ‘loose women’.
“When Islam spreads in neighborhoods, hijab and chastity will too. And our virtuous and pure women who have come under the enemy’s propaganda, will return [to abide with the compulsory hijab rules],” he said.
