According to the country’s law enforcement command, which has now changed from a rank-based system to a command-based system and is expected to bring about “transformation in security and service to the people” regarding the police in Iran, Hossein Ashtari, the chief commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s law enforcement, believes that the root of this change is the improvement of the police’s performance. In his opinion and the decision-makers of this change, the central point of any organization and institution’s performance is to improve the decision-making level and the quality of its human resources. Therefore, by elevating to the level of the chief commander, they claim to be striving to improve its performance.

What is the matter?

Until now, the police in Iran was a force with a lower organizational rank compared to other military institutions such as the army and the Revolutionary Guards. Now, with its organizational promotion as a command, it is considered on par with the Guards and the army; meaning the chief of police is now equivalent to the chief of the army and the Guards, and is considered equal to government ministers. Additionally, with this change, the chief of police is now ranked at the same level as the first deputy of the government. Its name has also changed from NAJA, which stands for the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to FRAJA; meaning the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

With this organizational upgrade, the first deputy of NAJA’s information department will change to the Faraja Information Organization. Secondly, the Police Information and Public Security of the Law Enforcement Force will be transformed into two organizations: the Information Organization and the Public Security Police. Thirdly, the Amin Police Sciences University will be divided into two comprehensive universities: the Graduate University and the Officer Training University. Fourthly, the Deputy of Science, Research, and Technology and the Office of Civilian-Police Cooperation will be established. And fifthly, in this plan, the Social Deputy of the Law Enforcement Force will be transformed into the Cultural and Social Deputy, and the organizational upgrade of the Alborz and West Tehran Law Enforcement Command and the upgrade of some other ranks have been observed. (2)

More than one hundred and forty years have passed since the formation of the Nizamiyya in Iran. Before that, during the establishment of urbanization in Iran, the force responsible for maintaining security under the rulers were made up of thugs, spies, night watchmen, and bandits. They were in charge of ensuring the safety of cities and intercity roads. It took time for the police, in a modern and semi-European style, to be established in Iran during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar. An institution called the Nizamiyya was formed during the Naseri era in Iran under the circumstances where the management of the capital was in the hands of corrupt officials. However, the events of the Naseri era, including his confrontation with the West and the clashes between the royal carriage and the hungry soldiers throwing stones, along with other factors, led to the decision to establish the Nizamiyya as a new institution in Iran. The

During the Qajar era, this organization was under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior, which always included the words “police” and “accountability” in its name. Until the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi, when this organization was transformed into a police force and remained in place until the implementation of the Police Force Law, passed on July 17, 1369 (1990), but it was in 1991 that the police force was established by merging the three institutions of police, committee, and gendarmerie.

However, this institution has not always been the sole guarantor of order and security in its history, especially since the beginning of the Pahlavi era, but it has itself become a part of the repressive apparatus of the ruling government. From the time of Dr. Ahmadi during the first Pahlavi era to the establishment of SAVAK in 1956, the institution of Shahrbani (city police) remained a part of the repressive arm of the government. The competition between Shahrbani and SAVAK in suppressing opponents of the ruling regime continued, especially in the 1950s, when Shahrbani tried to take the lead from SAVAK and gain prestige by eliminating opponents of the Shah’s regime in front of the eyes of the Supreme Leader. This continued even after the revolution. With the formation of the Law Enforcement Force in 1991 and the establishment of a special unit within it in the same year, the repressive organization in Iran found

This organization, although new, has a history of dealing with social uprisings and rebellions from the 1970s to 1400 (2021). It can be said that from the protests of 1999 until now, at least two levels of repressive forces have been involved, both at the level of ordinary forces and special units. Since 2006, this force has taken steps towards violating the rights of Iranian citizens by launching the Basij patrols and further restricting public freedoms.

However, public suppression in the realm of protests and social uprisings is not the only level in which law enforcement has violated the rights of citizens. On the other hand, the actions and behavior of this force in police stations and with ordinary suspects not only violate human rights, but also violate all principles of humanity. Multiple reports by human rights organizations exist of law enforcement’s treatment of ordinary suspects in police stations. The names of some of these police stations are familiar at least to the residents of Tehran. Shapur Police Station in the Gomrok neighborhood of Tehran is known as a place where even someone who has not committed a crime will confess to everything.

Another aspect regarding ordinary suspects is their public shaming and humiliation by special units. They are beaten and humiliated in front of people by these special units, in order to serve as a lesson for the suspects and those who have the intention to commit a crime, according to police officials. In recent years, there have been numerous incidents of physical violence and pressure on these individuals, from throwing them into the sun to beating them and forcing them to make animal noises in videos shared by citizens on their smartphones, serving as evidence for these claims.

The law enforcement forces have repeatedly held various plans under the pretext of “social security”. The claim of these plans is that they will deal with what they call “hooligans”, but the result is that with each confrontation, it seems we are facing an increase in those who the police label as hooligans. The situation becomes even more bitter when we know that people like Hossein Hamedani, a commander of the Revolutionary Guards who was killed in Syria, were themselves in control and later used 5,000 identified hooligans to suppress protesters in 2009 and specifically during Ashura of that year. Hossein Hamedani said, “We took an intelligence action that made noise in Tehran. We identified 5,000 people who were present in the riots, but were not present in political parties or movements, but were criminals and hooligans, and we controlled their homes. When they called for a gathering, we had control over them and did not allow them to

The story, however, is not just about the presence of law enforcement as a repressive force. It seems that the police, who are supposed to catch thieves and criminals, are themselves involved in economic corruption to the core. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, the former commander of NAJA, revealed the internal economic corruption of NAJA in a television program in Khordad 1394 and stated that he has responded twice in writing to the judge’s questions regarding corruption in NAJA. (8)

With these characteristics and this history of suppression and economic corruption, the military is being promoted from the power organization to the command organization. This promotion is not just organizational, but the head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Parliament says that the budget of this institution will also increase; (9) in fact, the Parliament, which is supposed to be the house of the nation, is increasing the budget of an institution that has a history of both suppression and economic corruption. It’s as if they have given a reward to a suspect. That military, with that history, is now the commander-in-chief; with more authority and a larger budget.

The law enforcement force of yesterday and the overall command today also have their own intelligence organization; a force that has a record of detaining bloggers during the crisis of 2004 and the mistreatment and torture of Tehran district mayors in 1997 and 1998. To the extent that Mohammad Reza Naghdi, the former commander of the intelligence protection, was sentenced to eight months in prison for ordering unauthorized entry in the case of Tehran district mayors, a sentence that was overturned in the appellate court and Naghdi was acquitted.

This Naja (Iran’s police force) established its own cyber police in the 1990s, and this FATA (cyber police) showed from the beginning of its establishment with the case of the murder of the blogger Sattar Beheshti that it is not separate from the rest of the repressive law enforcement organization.

However, this organization has expanded its reach to include other intelligence agencies in Iran, such as the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Organization. This is because during the second Pahlavi era, we witnessed competition between the Shahbanu and Savak in dealing with opposition to the government. Today, the Faraja Intelligence Organization is once again competing closely with the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Organization in suppressing dissent. In the past two decades, we have seen numerous instances of competition between the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards in dealing with critical forces and their arrests, to the point where this conflict was depicted in a series called “Gando” and the secret was revealed.

“Najai Farajashodeh, with a history of suppression, economic corruption, and involvement in suppressing and competing with other security institutions in the country, is now one of the main forces suppressing the people in the field of the Islamic Republic system, relying on its own forces such as regular forces and its special units. This text is written in a situation where Mahsa (Zhina) Amini has lost her life after being arrested by the Guidance Patrol. She was a young woman who was arrested in Tehran on the pretext of improper hijab and later died in the hospital. (10) This text is written in a situation where various cities in the country are scenes of widespread protests by the people who have taken to the streets after the murder of Mahsa Amini by the moral security police or the Guidance Patrol, and are resisting with empty hands against the forces that are seen in the videos circulating on social media as the majority of the Faraja forces. (11) These Far

Notes:

1- Why the change from “Naja” to “Faraja”?/ Changes in both structure and operation, Mehr News Agency, 26 Ordibehesht 1401.

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