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Saeed Aganji

When we look at the images of the people’s struggles before February 1979, we see many women who were not bound by hijab in these images and played an important role in the revolutionary struggles. The issue of hijab has been one of the major challenges for the government since the beginning of the revolution.

The compulsory hijab in Iran began with a speech by Ayatollah Khomeini on 15 Esfand 1357. He protested against the presence of unveiled women in government offices and demanded the presence of women with proper Islamic hijab.

However, this expression of opinion by Ayatollah Khomeini faced widespread protests from secular and anti-hijab women; self-appointed forces and early revolutionary committees began to suppress and confront the protesters. The intensity of these confrontations and tensions increased to the point that Ayatollah Khomeini’s office was forced to issue a statement on 17 Esfand month: this statement declared any confrontation with unveiled women as prohibited and only authorized law enforcement and committees to take action.

Compulsory hijab was seriously enforced in all government offices, organizations, and schools starting from July 5th, 1980, and it was announced that women without hijab are prohibited from entering these centers. This trend continued until Ramadan of 1981, and in the same year, new laws were established regarding hijab.

It can be said that the beginning of the crackdown of the Guidance Patrols, under a different name, existed from the very beginning of the revolution and throughout all eras of government, they have been suppressing and confronting women regarding the issue of hijab.

Although hijab was banned in all public, government, and private places, the Islamic Penal Code was passed in 1983 and according to it, “women who appear in public without proper hijab will be sentenced to 74 lashes.”

The actions of the committee and Islamic punishment laws do not end here; in 62 AH, a new discussion emerged under the title of “improper veiling” and committees such as “Jundallah” and “Forces Against Vice” were formed during this period to deal with “improper veiling”. These committees committed many atrocities, such as “branding women’s foreheads with hot iron”.

Mousavi Tabrizi, the general prosecutor of the revolution in the early years of the revolution, in Ardibehest 97, spoke about the conduct of the Guidance Patrols towards women, saying: “The Guidance Patrols have not been successful and the hijab situation was even better in religious families than it is now.” (1)

The interactions between the Guidance Patrols and Committees with the efficient functioning of the Reformist government decreased significantly due to the opening up of cultural space and did not have a noticeable impact like before. Until in the last months of the Reformist government in 2005, the plan for the expansion of hijab and chastity, which had been on the agenda of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution since the beginning of the 1970s, was approved, with strategies and executive solutions specified for each department, but this resolution was not implemented. (2) Until in 2006, the revised plan for organizing fashion and clothing was approved by the Parliament and the Guardian Council. This plan was considered a foundational plan in the fight against improper veiling, and the responsibilities of government agencies were specified in it.

In the same year, religious authorities such as Golpayegani, Fazl, and Makarem expressed concern over the government’s neglect of cultural issues, especially the hijab. This led to the resumption of the “Social Security Enhancement” project by the Guidance Patrol in 2007. Organizations and institutions allocated budgets of several billion rials for the promotion of chastity and hijab.

With the resumption of the activities of the Guidance and Support patrols and the government’s support and protection of them, harsher measures were taken against women. The commander of Tehran’s law enforcement in 2008 compared unveiled women to “moving mannequins”. These measures escalated to the point where they sometimes led to clashes between law enforcement forces and women. At the same time, videos of these clashes were widely circulated, leading to widespread criticism of the law enforcement forces.

As the 88 election approaches, the issue of “enhancing social security” and dealing with unveiled women has been temporarily put aside due to the election conditions. However, in 89, the “Guidance Patrols” returned under the name of “Reminders” and resumed their activities.

The encounter of morality police and law enforcement with women increased in 90s, but this plan was not limited to the streets and in 91, morality police were present at concerts and shopping centers to deal with unveiled women. Once again, with the approach of the presidential election in 92, the activities of these patrols were reduced.

After the 1992 presidential election, the presence of the Guidance Patrols diminished for a short period of time, until Sajjadi Nia, the commander of Tehran’s law enforcement, announced the presence of seven thousand undercover forces in 1995 to advance the plan for social security improvement. Part of the duties of these undercover forces was to combat indecent acts and uncovering veils in cars, but this plan faced widespread opposition. In the same year, the research center of the parliament published a report and deemed the undercover patrols unsuccessful, causing division and hypocrisy in society. The main reason for this failure was attributed to the lack of demand and public desire.

In recent years, images of the confrontations of morality police with women have been widely spread on social networks, which has caused reactions from government officials and members of parliament. Fatemeh Saeedi, a reformist representative in the parliament, tweeted in 2017 about the confrontations of morality police with girls, saying: “I wish instead of morality police, we had a police for lies. We left lies and corruption and became entangled in a few strands of our daughters’ hair.”

It has been almost 40 years since the Islamic Republic, through the formation of committees and patrols such as (Jundallah, Ansar, and Arshad) and Islamic propaganda organizations, has tried to fight against immodesty and suppress the desires of women who choose to not wear the hijab. In this process, it has spent hundreds of billions of tomans and suppressed and imprisoned women activists. However, it has never been able to stop these protests and has always been defeated throughout these years.

Notes:

• “Ansari, Ehsan, Gasht Ershad is a source of dissatisfaction; Conversation with Hossein Mousavi Tabrizi, Arman Emrooz, 8 Ordibehesht 1397.”

• A review of the history of the Arshad Tour, ISNA, 1 Ordibehesht month 1395.

• The suspension of the social security election campaign is announced, Jom Jom Online, April 13th, 2009.