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Iran morality police return, but efficacy of coercive measures in question

Iran announced on Sunday that its morality police patrol units would resume operations after a monthslong absence following the death of Mahsa Amini while in their custody.

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, died last September, three days after being arrested by Tehran’s morality police for allegedly breaching the country’s strict dress code for women.

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News of her death fueled months of protests, which eventually evolved into demands for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. This marked one of the most significant challenges to the regime in its history spanning over four decades.

For months after Amini’s death, the infamous white-and-green vans of the morality police vanished from the streets of Iran. At one point, there was even widespread reporting in international media about Iran having abolished the morality police, though that turned out to be untrue.

Iranian women walk on a street during the revival of morality police in Tehran, Iran, July 16, 2023. (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)

The hijab, which became mandatory for women shortly after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, is a red line for Iran’s clerical rulers.

“The Islamic Republic will let go of its nuclear program before it lets go of the hijab,” a person in Iran, who asked not to be identified out of fear for their safety, told Al Arabiya English, emphasizing the importance of the headscarf to the country’s theocratic leaders.

Saeid Golkar, an assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, explained that the Islamic Republic rests on three main pillars: morality policing, which includes enforcing the mandatory hijab law; anti-Semitism; and anti-Americanism.

“The regime cannot undermine these three pillars,” he told Al Arabiya English.

Golkar believes that the timing of the announcement to bring back the morality police is not random. With the start of the Islamic month of Muharram this week, Iran enters a period of mourning for al-Hussain ibn Ali, a grandson of Prophet Muhammad, who was killed in battle in what is now Iraq on the 10th day of Muharram – known as Ashura – in the year 680.

During this period, religious sentiment runs high among the regime’s religious base and the authorities may see it as an opportune moment to counter the growing defiance of the mandatory hijab law, Golkar explained.

Iranians drive at Vali-Asr Square in the capital Tehran near a billboard marking the beginning of Islam’s Muharram month on July 31 2022. (AFP)

Following Amini’s death, an unprecedented number of women began appearing in public without covering their hair. While the morality police were absent from the streets, authorities took alternative measures to enforce the law, such as closing businesses whose staff did not adhere to the rules and installing surveillance cameras in public places to identify the offenders.

However, those measures have largely failed to deter women in Iran from defying the mandatory hijab law.

A second person living in Iran, who also requested anonymity over safety concerns, told Al Arabiya English the reintroduction of morality police is simply a move by the Islamic Republic to appease its supporters, and expressed doubts over about its effectiveness in enforcing the hijab law.

“Things are never going to return to how they were before Amini’s death,” the person said, meaning that the current norm of women appearing in public without covering their hair has become the new reality.

Authorities will not be able to revert to how things were before Amini’s death, when seeing women unveiled in public was far less common, the person said. “The number of unveiled women in Iran today is too large for authorities to be able to do anything about it.”

An Iranian woman walks in Tehran on July 18, 2023, as the police relaunched patrols to catch the increasing number of women leaving their hair uncovered in public in defiance of a strict dress code. (AFP)

Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Al Arabiya English that while the Iranian leadership perceives the return of the morality police as a means to discourage women from challenging the mandatory hijab law, it may end up provoking further anger among the Iranian people.

Already, videos have emerged on social media this week showing altercations involving the morality police in several Iranian cities.

The Islamic Republic is both confident and paranoid simultaneously, according to Brodsky.

He said Tehran feels it will not face significant international pressure due to signals of “de-escalation” from Washington, which emboldens the regime to escalate domestic measures.

Since US President Joe Biden took office in 2021, his administration has actively pursued diplomatic engagement with Iran, aiming to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. Washington had withdrawn from the agreement in 2018 under former President Donald Trump.

“At the same time, the regime is warily eyeing the potential for unrest ahead of the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s murder,” Brodsky said, adding that the return of the morality police highlights the regime’s inability to reform.

Iranian women walk on a street during the revival of morality police in Tehran, Iran, July 16, 2023. (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)

Shukriya Bradost, a Middle East-focused international security and foreign policy analyst and PhD student at Virginia Tech University, told Al Arabiya English that the Islamic Republic is apprehensive about allowing women to dress as they wish because it fears that such a move could trigger broader changes in the country, something it seeks to avoid.

“The recent uprising for regime change in Iran was empowered by women’s resistance against the compulsory hijab, but it extended beyond this single issue,” she said. “Therefore, any concessions on the hijab law might be perceived by the regime as a potential domino effect that could lead to the eventual downfall of the regime in Tehran.”

Bradost expressed skepticism about the morality police’s chances of success in their mission. She pointed to the prevalent sentiment among many Iranians who believe they have “nothing to lose” due to factors such as the severe economic crisis resulting from decades of internal mismanagement and corruption as well as international sanctions.

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