Sajedi Nia, Commander of the State Security Force announced that “more than 4,400 clothes shops were sealed” just last year “for offering indecent apparel violating public morality.”
Speaking at a meeting on “virtue and veil”, he acknowledged the failure of the regime’s suppressive measures against Iranian women, adding that “the current status of hijab and virtue does not conform to an Islamic society. The monitoring of women’s veiling over the past 15 years indicates that the situation has gradually worsened.”
In the meeting held on August 12 to find new ways for suppression of women, Tehran’s Prosecutor Jaafari Dolat Abadi also admitted that the regime had failed in its repressive campaigns. He said in the area of chastity and public morality, “24 departments have responsibilities… Despite the fact that specialized courts have been set up in Tehran to encounter these types of offenses, a lack of coordination among relevant departments, has prevented progress.”
Dolat Abadi said the presence of people who do not succumb to the regime’s suppressive rules “is predominant in public places such as parks, restaurants, etc. and it is necessary to overcome this atmosphere by providing solutions.”
Referring to Khamenei’s orders on women’s veiling, Tehran’s Prosecutor called on the regime officials to deal with “offenses against public chastity and morality.” (State-run news agency ISNA, August 12, 2016). On July 20, 2016, Khamenei said: “Any discussion over the voluntary or mandatory nature of Hijab (women’s veil) is deviatory, and does not have any place in the Islamic Republic…. If it turns out that something is religiously unlawful (haram), the Islamic regime is duty-bound to stand against such haram.”
The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran condemns the Iranian regime’s backward and repressive positions against women. There is no doubt that in fear of the Iranian people and women’s growing protests, the misogynist regime seeks the remedy in further escalation of oppression of women. They know, however, that this will only foment the Iranian people’s fury against the regime as manifested in the protests of various walks of life.
Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 17, 2016