Deaf to Catcalls*

The confrontation with those ones who are assumed to be "bad hijab" has reached its 2nd month in Iran. The recent crackdown against women (& men in rare cases) has raised lots of concerns in the society & even the high rank authorities such as the head of judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi. But the police has turned a blind eye to them all and vowed that it's not a temporary annual plan at the beginning of the hot season. They have announced that this crackdown will be continued in order to guarantee the social security. Along with these police actions, Mr. Safar Harandi, “the minister of culture & Islamic guidance” who is in charge of control over publications, has warned newspapers not to disrupt the confrontation with "bad hijabs". Nevertheless it's not the whole story. There are some other plans on the way to confront badly veiled women & separate men & women in the workplaces.

The head of Iran’s airports’ police has stated that they have warned people in more than 17000 cases about their "hijab". Commander Botshekan also was quoted as saying that they have prevented 50 women from boarding the plane because of disobeying Islamic dress codes. “We’ve held meetings in the airports in order to explain that our crew shouldn’t serve to those ones who break social, Islamic norms”, he added.

The other controversial plan belongs to “The Council of Iran’s General Culture” that has notified governmental organizations of some instructions about "hijab" & separation of men & women. According to these instructions, all the municipalities have to use Islamic narratives & traditions instead of commercial advertisements showing heavy made up women on the billboards. This subset of “The High Council of Cultural Revolution” has also notified all the offices to decrease any contact between men & women in the workplaces & take women’s "hijab" into serious consideration when employing. Another part of this notification urges “the Ministry of Road & Transportation” to put signboards promoting chastity in the roads & streets.

Even though every one thought the direct confrontation of the police will decrease after all these instructions & social concerns, publishing the picture of a woman on the net with a bloody face showed that the brutal actions are still on the way. Colonel Mehdi Ahmadi, the chief of information center of Tehran’s police, declared that this women was filming from police officers while warning to "bad hijab" ones & when the officers asked her to come with them, a physical confrontation occurred. He also informed the Fars news agency’s reporter of very precise & comprehensive investigations over this incident.

Days after days, we are seeing pure violence & brutal actions in Tehran’s streets. Do these police actions increase the social security in our country? There are lots of doubts about it…what do you think?

*catcall: a loud whistle or shout expressing disapproval of a speech or performance