Iranian police back beating women over headscarves

Iranian women are being sexually assaulted, tasered and beaten by Tehran’s “morality police” in a fresh crackdown on those flouting the country’s strict dress codes.

Multiple videos posted online show women being bundled into the back of vehicles for infractions as minor as wearing a coat that is too short or too colourful.

Under the code name “Noor” or “light” in Farsi, the Islamic Republic has launched a major new clampdown on anyone violating its draconian female dress codes.

Women in Iran spoke of sexual abuse and being denied entry to public spaces such as subway stations, universities, and cafes for not complying with headscarf rules or for wearing fitted trousers.

The latest severe measures started on April 13, just hours before Iran launched hundreds of suicide drones and missiles at Israel.

Many Iranians speculate this timing was chosen because global attention was diverted.

“I was approached by a group of plainclothes officers at around 5pm last Wednesday when I was walking on the pavement towards home,” said one 25-year-old woman, a civil engineering student in Karaj, near the capital Tehran.

“I had my headscarf loosely draped around my neck, ready to be pulled up if I encountered them but everything unfolded too swiftly for me to react,” she added.

A white van arrived a few minutes later and she was dragged inside while screaming. Four other girls, all crying, were already in the vehicle. They were then taken to a police station where they found dozens of other women.

Eventually, she was given papers to sign. She said the documents stated she should not appear without a hijab again and that she would not file a complaint about the officers’ behaviour.

Across Iran, hundreds of women have been arrested in the past week over violations of dress codes.

The crackdown has also extended to online platforms. Police have arrested several women who shared their experiences and dozens of Instagram pages have been blocked.

Joe Biden has revealed how he contemplated suicide after his first wife Neilia died alongside their daughter Naomi in 1972. The US president said on a radio show that following the car crash tragedy, the then tee-total senator almost reached for a bottle of Scotch before stopping himself.

Biden, who is seeking a second term in the White House, revealed the insight into his private life during an interview with Howard Stern last Friday.

He shared his feelings about the crash that killed his wife and 13-monthold daughter on December 18, 1972.

“I don’t drink. That’s not a virtue. I just never drank,” Biden said.

“And I used to sit there and think to myself, ‘I think I’ll take out a bottle of Scotch’. We always had liquor in the house... and I was going to just drink and get drunk and I could never bring myself to do it.

The interview had been a surprise as Biden does not often give extended so-called “sit downs”.

“And just a brief moment, I thought maybe I should just go to the Delaware Memorial Bridge and jump. But I had two kids,” he said.

Biden gave the interview in New York, where he had been for a fundraiser hosted by actor Michael Douglas.

The US president also told Stern he would welcome the chance to meet his likely rival Donald Trump in a head-to-head debate ahead of the election in November.

“I don’t know when. I’m happy to debate with him,” Biden said.

Biden’s re-election campaign has previously declined to commit to participating in the debates.

Biden himself had also been vague, saying last month that whether he debated Trump or not “depends on his behaviour”. The two men debated twice during the 2020 general election — a campaign year constrained significantly by Covid-19 restrictions — and Biden was notably irritated by Trump’s antics in the chaotic first debate that year.

“Will you shut up?” he told Trump at one point during the first debate.

Trump campaign officials have said for some time that the former US president is prepared to debate Biden any time, and Chris LaCivita, Trump campaign senior adviser, quickly responded to Biden’s remarks on the social media site X: “OK let’s set it up!”

Afterwards Trump reacted to Biden’s new public willingness to debate by saying “everyone knows he doesn’t really mean it” but suggested tomorrow evening, Tuesday evening or Wednesday evening when Trump will be campaigning in Michigan.

The former US president is suggesting evenings because he is otherwise attending proceedings for his hush money criminal trial in New York.

The Commission on Presidential Debates has already announced the dates and locations for the three general election debates between the candidates: September 16 in San Marcos, Texas; October 1 in Petersburg, Virginia; and October 9 in Salt Lake City.

The election is in November.