Disbanded in December, the morality police are back in Iran. These regime men patrol the streets to punish women who do not wear the Islamic veil correctly. Opponents of the regime are worried, but continue their disobedience.
The morality police, disbanded in December by the Iranian regime, are back in Iran. In December 2022, faced with major protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in September, the mullahs’ regime decided to abolish this “morality police”.
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Nearly seven months after the announcement of its dissolution, the men of the regime are therefore once again patrolling the streets of Iran to check, in particular, that women are wearing their Islamic veil correctly. These are the same men who arrested Mahsa Amini for an ill-fitting veil. The young woman had died after violence, says her family, which the Iranian police deny, which evokes a heart attack.
franceinfo was able to talk with a woman and a man who oppose the mullahs’ regime. Layla*, 32, is one of many Iranian women who have been fighting the Islamic Republic since last fall. She believes that “the return of this police unit to the streets is a spit in the face of all Iranian women. Of all those who dared to come out, to shout freedom, justice, shout their absolute rights, for the way to dress as they want“, continues the opponent.
“It’s terriblelaments Layla. What is inadmissible is going back”even if, she admits, the Iranian men and women have “accustomed to these policies taken by the State“.
“It’s a kind of revenge for women: you took to the streets, you questioned our holy state, you will suffer consequences.”
Layla, an Iranian opponent of the regimeat franceinfo
Heavy penalties for those refractory to the veil
The regime has implemented many punishments for those who refuse to submit to the obligation to wear the veil. The authorities can arrest these women, ban them from driving, or even from taking their university exams. Several times the men of the regime have threatened Layla, who lives “every day when [elle] leaves home [elle] without a veil like a fight. I don’t know what will happen to me if a regime supporter comes after me as a woman. You have to prepare for everything.”
We must not let go, because if we obey them, the blood of Mahsa Amini and of all the Iranians who died for freedom will have flowed for nothing.”
Layla, Iranian opponent of the regimeat franceinfo
Omid*, 19, is an active member of the protest movement. Some of his comrades in the fight are still in prison. He notes that repression has intensified. “ATAfter months of revolt, those who killed Mahsa Amini are back on the streets, describes the young man. They are more numerous, more brutal too, and that creates a wave of anger in the population.
“The Islamic Republic has not changed”
Omid recalls that “many people thought that the regime would soften, but in reality the Islamic Republic has not changed. They have become even more cruel, they arrest as many people as possible to kill the revolution in theœuf”says the opponent of the mullahs’ regime.
According to these two young Iranians, the mullahs managed to quell the demonstrations in the streets which followed the death of Mahsa Amini, but their hope of one day overthrowing the regime is intact.
*Names have been changed.