“Be careful with the hijab, they are here!” whispered a man in Shima's ear who at noon yesterday had stopped in front of one of the juice stands in the Grand Bazaar of Tehran to gain strength after a day of shopping. “People are very supportive, they try to warn when they see the police and many confront them to prevent them from taking us in the vans,” said this 36-year-old woman who, despite the tension around the bazaar, with the patrols, refused to cover his head.
“They are trying again, but I don't think they will succeed,” Shima said with a smile. “I already took it off, I'm not going to put it on again,” she continued explaining while her shopping partner Zahra, an anesthesiologist doctor and mother of two little ones, adjusted her scarf. “Since Saturday they have filled the streets again,” she pointed out.
She was referring to the morality patrols, men and women dressed in strict chadors, whose fame and discredit increased since the protests that followed the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. One of these groups had detained her as she left the subway and the young woman, 22 years old, suffered an attack already at the police station. Upon arrival at the hospital she was unconscious and days later she died. Some versions claim that she suffered blows when she was in the van, the same ones that can be seen again in strategic places in Tehran and other cities.
They never really left, but from then on they only approached women – thousands of whom have since removed their veils in protest – to ask them to cover themselves, or to take photos of them. Many were then summoned to the police station via text message to sign a statement that they would not do it again.
But in the midst of the crisis with Israel, with the country wondering how and when Iran would respond, police began a campaign unprecedented since Mahsa's death to force women to return to strict Islamic dress. The instruction was given by the supreme leader, who days after the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus – in which seven members of the Revolutionary Guard died –, when he had already spoken of responding to the attack on Israel, took advantage of two public interventions to emphasize about the need to enforce the hijab. “To defend moral values and religious norms,” he justified. The police announced hours later that starting [last] Saturday the new campaign would begin, which included a fine – especially high for the Iranian economy – for those who break the rules. Those who are arrested for the first time have to pay 3 million Tomans, about 45 euros. Many argue that in addition to the cost, what they fear most is the humiliation and the bad time they have to endure. More and more people are publishing stories online telling how they have been detained and humiliated in recent days.
"They try to demoralize people with money, they have created this economic situation in which we are poorer every day, if we go to war the dollar will rise even more, but they still put pressure on us," explained Masumeh, who yesterday did shopping with her daughter at the bazaar. The daughter refused to cover herself despite the risks.
Yesterday the patrols were seen throughout the city, but especially in the central Valiasr square, where the authorities deployed a large fence showing the missiles launched by Iran. “Israel is weaker than a spider's web,” the slogan reads. Dozens of police motorcycles were parked under the missiles and the name of each one of them.
“I don't understand why now, when we are all afraid of what might happen. That just shows that they are afraid of people and want to make them think about something else,” explained Sima, 42, who sells sunglasses. He said that in the morning she saw how they took away an older woman, with white hair, because she was wearing a skirt that showed part of her leg. “They picked her up among several women and put her in the car,” she said. The fear of being detained is so great that yesterday she held her veil with several clips so that it would not fall. “I have a son who I haven't sent to school since Sunday for fear of what Israel might do. I can’t let them stop me,” she explained. According to her, many of the people she knows are very afraid of the response that Israel has already announced.
But the pressure is not just limited to women. Several journalists have received threats for saying that Iran's action could lead to a major war. And the intelligence of the Revolutionary Guard has asked the population to denounce those who want to harm the tranquility of society.
