Torture, arbitrariness, oppression: That’s behind the Iranian moral police

In Iran, people have been protesting against the mullahs’ regime for three months. In response, the government dissolved the notorious moral police at the beginning of December – at least officially. She checks whether the Iranians are dressed correctly – she has quite a bit of leeway here.

People are brutally dragged by their hair into minibuses and taken away: the moral police in Iran are feared. Their brutal and ruthless actions sparked the protests in Iran three months ago. In mid-September, the morale patrol arrested 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for allegedly showing a few strands of hair under her headscarf. The young woman died just a few days later in the custody of the vice squad.

Officially, the police say that she first fainted and then went into a coma due to heart failure. But there are indications that point to abuse. Another version is circulating online: in the police car, her head is said to have been hit against the window – the result was a cerebral hemorrhage.

After the 22-year-old’s death, demonstrations against the country’s leadership broke out across the country. Police officers and security forces brutally attack the demonstrators, using tear gas and shooting at them. Several hundred demonstrators have been killed so far and several thousand arrested. Two men have also been executed in connection with the protests. A 23-year-old died last Thursday after allegedly attacking a member of the paramilitary Basij militias in Tehran with a gun. Another 23-year-old who took part in anti-government protests was publicly hanged on Monday.

Vice police continue to check

The notorious Iranian moral police has now been abolished – at least officially. The Iranian Attorney General announced this on December 4th. Two days later, another Iranian agency, the Center for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, said the vice squad was no longer on duty.

Armin Eschraghi, an Islamic scholar at the Goethe University in Frankfurt Main, sees the supposed abolition as just a diversionary maneuver. “That turned out to be a duck. Some also suspect a PR maneuver behind it,” says Eschraghi in the ntv podcast “Learned something again”. Whether the moral police has really been abolished or not is irrelevant to the people of Iran, because the rules remain in place. “The most that one could imagine would be that something would be reorganized.”

Surveillance in Iran did not disappear all at once. “Even if I hear that the controls have become fewer, they still continue,” reports journalist Bamdad Esmaili on RTL.

Morality guards have existed for over 40 years

The Islamic Republic of Iran has strict dress codes. This also includes the obligation to wear a headscarf. Iranian women have had to wear the hijab since the early 1980s. Many courageous women are currently taking off their headscarves in protest, thereby breaking a taboo. Several have already been arrested.

So far, the moral police have checked whether people are dressed appropriately. It is a unit of the Iranian police that reports to the Interior Ministry. Nevertheless, the guardians of morals apply loudly Amnesty International according to the Iranian Code of Criminal Procedure as a judicial officer. You can arrest and interrogate people.

The vice squad invokes the criminal law of the Islamic Republic of Iran and their understanding of Islam, says Armin Eschraghi. It was founded in 2006 under ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But there were similar groups before that, since the end of the 1970s, since the Islamic revolution in the country. “The basic idea in the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979 is that public decency, chastity or virtue must be promoted, and that vice and depravity must be stopped,” explains the Islamic scholar. Even if the morality police have had different names since then and were assigned to different authorities, “nothing has changed in terms of the patronizing, the oppression of women in particular.”

Competences are not precisely defined

Exactly what clothing is considered inappropriate is not clear. The rules are vague, Armin Eschraghi knows. The inspectors would have a lot of leeway, they could take action arbitrarily. “Even just how that is formulated: public decency, customs, religious rules, morality. It is nowhere precisely defined and nobody knows exactly what competencies they have.”

According to the regulations, Iranian women must cover their hair and body completely and should not dress in a figure-hugging dress. Tight jeans and make-up are forbidden, even the socks are not allowed to be seen, reports Eschraghi in the “Learned again” podcast. “Even men who put on make-up, who have piercings, who wear ripped jeans, who dye their hair, who have long hair expose themselves to the wrath of these moral guardians.”

Even if the Iranians break a taboo with their clothing, this does not automatically mean that they will be stopped. “It may be that they walk the streets for weeks and nothing happens. But if they are stopped, then they have no way of suing anywhere for their right to free personality development or the free choice of clothing or hair color. Then they are her turn.”

Behavior can also give the moral guardians a reason for arrest. For example, it is also considered indecent to appear in public as an unmarried couple.

Iranians cannot sue for fundamental rights

The vigilantes are everywhere. In plain clothes so you can’t see them. Or in minibuses with tinted windows. Videos of how they take people away and force them into these vans have recently been seen frequently on social media. The men of the police unit wear green uniforms. And there are women there too, they wear a black traditional chador, a floor-length cloak that only reveals the face.

Anyone who is stopped by the moral guardians has to reckon with everything. It starts with a warning. Or, if you’re lucky, you can exchange clothing that has been classified as inappropriate. Armin Eschraghi knows that it doesn’t usually end so lightly: “But it often happens that you are invited into this van and taken to the police station. And criminal proceedings can be opened there. But it can also be that they have to undergo training on that. That means you have to watch a video on how to dress modestly, that’s kind of a warning.”

But people never know exactly who they are dealing with, says the Islam expert. “With which of the 17 security agencies in Iran, with which of the different forms of police. In the end, you never really know what’s going to happen to you and you have no leverage. You can’t sue for fundamental rights.”

“Woman is decency personified”

The moral guardians insult people and often become violent. They are then mistreated and tortured in their custody. As is presumably Mahsa Amini.

According to Armin Eschraghi, the Iranian guardians of morals are primarily targeting women. They are oppressed and do not have the same rights as men. “Woman is something like decency personified, men’s honor personified, she is responsible for it.”

Even when police officers and security forces take brutal action against the demonstrators in Iran, they do not allow themselves to be intimidated. A compromise between the two sides is not in sight.