Morality police launch ‘all-out war on women’

Iranian women are being sexually assaulted, Tasered and beaten in a fresh morality police crackdown on those flouting Tehran’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 told The Telegraph 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 that this timing was chosen because global attention was diverted.

Engineering student Taranom (a pseudonym to protect her identity) said she had a headscarf around her neck while heading home near Tehran but was too slow to pull it up when plainclothes police approached.

The 25-year-old described being groped and taunted by one of them before she was thrown into a white van.

Four other girls, all crying, were already in the vehicle, she said. They were then taken to a police station, where they found dozens of other women.

After a five-hour-wait, Taranom was given papers to sign. She said the documents stated that 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 like Taranom have been violently arrested over the past week. One clip from Tehran shows a woman surrounded by nearly a dozen officers, with two women slapping her face and two men pushing her into a vehicle.

Imprisoned women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, called the situation an “all-out war against women”.

“Today, the authoritarian religious government, driven by desperation rather than strength, has unleashed an all-out war against women on every street of the country,” Mohammadi said in a voice message from the notorious Evin prison.

In northeastern Mashhad, Parvin, a 32-year-old nurse, was denied entry to a subway station, while in northwestern Tabriz, Shahnaz, a 24-year-old student, was refused entry to a cafe.

“[The morality police] are everywhere you look,” said Parvin.

“They are using this time when the world is distracted by their conflict with Israel to harass us.”

After being grabbed and verbally abused by a female officer at the subway station for failing to wear a headscarf, Parvin instead chose to walk. “I refused to let them dictate what I should wear.”

Since the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who was arrested for wearing her headscarf “improperly”, there has been a growing trend of women appearing in public without the hijab.

Amini’s death sparked nationwide protests, and the white vans associated with the morality police disappeared for a while. But they are back in full force.

The authorities “cannot do anything with Israel”, said student Noshin. “Instead, they harass us.”