Protests against Iran's "morality police" have spread across the country since September 18, when a 21-year-old woman died in morality police custody.
Iran protester: 'They said if we didn't keep quiet, they would rape us' | BBC News:
September 27, 2022 - "Protests have spread across in Iran since the death on 16 September of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by the morality police in the capital three days earlier for allegedly breaking strict hijab (headscarf) rules. Police maintain that she collapsed at a detention centre after suffering a heart attack, but her family allege that officers beat her head with a baton and banged her head against one of their vehicles.
"The protests sparked by her death, led mainly by women, began with demands to end the mandatory hijab laws. But they have now turned into nationwide demonstrations against Iran's leaders and the entire clerical establishment. Despite widespread internet disruption, videos of protesters being arrested by the Iranian security forces have continued to be published on social media.... The BBC has seen videos in which commanders are seen ordering riot police officers to 'not pity the protesters and shoot them'. Other videos verified by the BBC appear to show security forces shooting live ammunition at protesters....
"According to the state media, more than 40 people have been killed during the unrest. Human rights groups have reported a higher death toll. The overall number of people who have been arrested has not been shared by the authorities. However, the chief prosecutor of Mazandaran, a province north of Tehran, said at least 450 protesters had been detained there alone. Human rights groups say thousands of protestors are being detained.... President Ebrahim Raisi has pledged to 'deal decisively' with the protests, which have now spread to most of Iran's 31 provinces....
"Women have been at the forefront of the protests, with many removing their headscarves or burning them.... Many are being held in small police stations and IRGC facilities, many of which are unknown to the public. 'We were moved to a small police station. They were not ready to receive so many people,' Maryam told the BBC. 'They put at least 60 women, including me, in a small room. We were standing next to each other and couldn't sit or move. They said we could not use the bathroom, and that if we got hungry we could eat our stools. After almost a day, when we shouted and protested inside the room, they started threatening us that if we didn't keep quiet, they would rape us.'"
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63047372
Who are the morality police?
Guidance Patrol | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
September 28, 2022 - "Guidance Patrol (Persian: گشت ارشاد, romanized: gašt-e eršād), widely known [as] the morality police, is a vice squad/Islamic religious police in the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran, established in 2005 with the task of arresting people who violate the Islamic dress code, usually concerning the wearing by women of hijabs covering their hair. Since the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution, Iranian law has required all women in Iran to wear hijabs that cover their head and neck, and conceal their hair. In the 1980s, the Islamic Revolution Committees served the function of the Islamic religious police in Iran. In 2005, the Guidance Patrol became its successor organization. The Guidance Patrol reports to the Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei....
"According to Iran's Interior Minister, in a three-month period in 2014, 220,000 women were taken to police stations and signed statements there promising to wear hijabs, 19,000 were given hair-covering notices, and 9,000 were detained. In 2014, the police additionally gave warnings and guidance to 3.6 million other Iranians who failed to follow the Islamic dress code. In 2015, in an eight-month period police in Tehran stopped 40,000 women driving in Tehran for not obeying Islamic rules of proper dress, and impounded the cars of most of them, generally for a week. In 2016, Tehran used 7,000 undercover Guidance Patrol officers to catch violators of the Islamic dress code. The Guidance Patrol has also harassed trans women for lack of gender conformity.... Iran also banned the use of makeup by women....
"The Guidance Patrols usually consist of a van with a male crew accompanied by chador-clad females who stand at busy public places (e.g., shopping centers, squares, and subway stations), to arrest women not wearing hijabs or not wearing them in accordance with government standards.... The United Nations Human Rights Office said young Iranian women were violently slapped in the face, beaten with batons, and pushed into police vans. The women are driven to a correctional facility or police station, lectured on how to dress, have their photos taken by the police and personal information recorded, required to destroy any 'bad' clothing with scissors, and generally released to relatives the same day though many are detained. Under Article 683 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code, the penalty for a woman not wearing the hijab consists of imprisonment from 10 days to two months, and a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 Iranian rials. Violators may also be lashed....
"The Guidance Patrol also monitors immodest attire by men, 'Western-style' haircuts worn by men, male-female fraternization, violations of restrictions on the wearing of makeup, and the wearing of bright colors, tight clothing, torn jeans, and short trousers. Violations include too much hair showing from under a headscarf, and a boyfriend and girlfriend taking a walk together. Members of the public may turn one another in for perceived violations of the dress code, and traffic cameras are also used to identify violators of the dress code. Iran's entire CCTV cameras, including from cafes, universities, and kindergartens, transmit their footage to the police....
"On September 16, 2022, the Guidance Patrol arrested Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly, in a manner that allowed some of her hair to be visible under her hijab. She died in their custody; they claimed she suffered heart failure, and consequently died comatose two days later. Bruises on her legs and face suggested to many that she was beaten, despite police denials. Multiple medical officials and detainees that witness her arrest claim that Guidance Patrol officials tortured her in the back of a van before arriving to the station. Her arrest and death inspired a wave of protests in Iran, including at Tehran University and at Kasra Hospital, where she died."
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Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guidance_Patrol
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