Iran’s ski police keep men and women apart on slopes
WINTER snow is bringing thousands of skiers to the Elburz Mountains outside Tehran – but their experience has a uniquely Iranian twist.
Police have been deployed to enforce the segregation of male and female visitors. General Hossein Sajadinia, the commander of the Greater Tehran force, promised that his officers would “prevent any immoral offences”.
He told local media that a “ski police unit” had been equipped with new uniforms to “withstand the mountainous conditions and yet be flexible enough to arrest offenders while chasing them on the slopes”.
Young Iranians meet and mix on the mountains, where some women push back their veils while dining in ski slope restaurants and shisha cafés.
But Gen Sajadinia promised tough action against any transgressions. “This year we have sent a number of women officers to learn how to ski so they can carry out their vigilante duties of dealing with women who defy the Islamic hijab and those members of the public who play loud music while mixing with the opposite sex or commit sexual harassment,” he said.
The ski slopes of north Tehran have traditionally been a scene for confrontation between Iran’s hardliners and the affluent residents of the capital.
They are officially segregated and women are not allowed to ski in the absence of a husband, father or brother.
But as one Iranian said on social media: “The closer one gets to the mountains, the less one feels the grip of the regime and its social restrictions.”
Hardliners have criticised President Hassan Rouhani’s moderate government for the “lax social codes” allegedly taking hold in the country. One preacher in Tehran complained that liberalism was “creeping” in.