Iranian authorities on Sunday announced a new campaign to force women to wear the hijab and morality police returned to the streets 10 months after the death of a Kurdish- Iranian woman in their custody, which sparked nationwide protests.
The morality police had largely pulled back following the death of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini last September, as authorities struggled to contain mass protests calling for the overthrow of the theocracy, and for political, social and economic changes.
The protests largely slowed down earlier this year following a heavy crackdown in which according to official data over 500 protesters were killed and nearly 20,000 detained. But many women continued to flaunt the official dress code, especially in the capital, Tehran, and other cities.
The morality police were only rarely seen patrolling the streets, and in December, there were even some reports — later denied — that they had been disbanded.
Iran’s clerical rulers view the hijab as a key pillar of the Islamic Revolution that brought them to power, and consider more casual dress a sign of Western decadence.
On Sunday, Gen. Saeed Montazerolmahdi, a police spokesman, said the morality police would resume notifying and then detaining women not wearing hijab in public. In Tehran, the men and women of the morality police could be seen patrolling the streets in marked vans.
