Iran’s strike ‘coincided’ with crackdown on dissent
DUBAI: The same day Iran launched its first ever direct attack on Israel it embarked on a less-noticed confrontation at home, ordering police in several cities to take to the streets to arrest women accused of flouting its strict Islamic dress code.
Iranian authorities insist that their so-called Nour (“Light”) campaign targets businesses and individuals who defy the hijab law, aiming to respond to demands from devout citizens who are angry about the growing number of unveiled women in public.
But activists and some politicians say the campaign appears aimed not only at enforcing mandatory hijab-wearing, but also at discouraging any wider dissent at a vulnerable moment for the clerical rulers.
Under Iran’s sharia, or Islamic law, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes. Offenders face public rebuke, fines or arrest.
The laws have become a political flashpoint since protests over the death of a young woman in the custody of the country’s “morality police” in 2022 spiralled into the worst political turmoil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In a show of civil disobedience, unveiled women have frequently appeared in public since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Security forces violently put down the subsequent revolt, which called for the government’s downfall.
As Iran’s drone and missile assault unfolded on April 13, Tehran Police chief Abbasali Mohammadian went on state TV to announce the new campaign.
“Starting today, police in Tehran and other cities will carry out measures against those who violate the hijab law,” he said, while hundreds of police swept onto the streets of the capital and other cities.
Social media users posted pictures of a heavy morality police presence in Tehran and videos of police violently arresting women they alleged were improperly dressed, including plainclothes security forces dragging young women into police vans.
Morality police vans had largely vanished from the streets since last year.
A human rights activist in Tehran said the move was aimed at “injecting fear into society to prevent any anti-war protests and quell domestic dissent when the rulers are at war with Israel”.
The prospect of a war with Israel, after a series of tit-for-tat retaliation between the arch foes, has alarmed many ordinary Iranians already facing an array of problems, ranging from economic misery to tightening social and political controls after the nationwide unrest in 2022-23.