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

Veiled or not?!

1347 warnings & guidance

117 detainees

59 referred cases to the court

20 sealed clothes shops

47 attached cars

After calling a halt to those who are assumed to be badly veiled, Iranian police have started a confrontation with the women in the streets under the name of increasing the social security! Above mentioned are the statistics for the first day of the challenging campaign, started at April 21.

Along with the launched campaign of the police, you can see some biased TV reports in which, people in the street just accept that "bad hijab" ones have lots of bad effects on the society & even appreciate the police to confront them!

It's not the first year that the police forces are trying to make people obey the governmental dress codes which are said to be originated from Islam. Every year, at the beginning of the hot seasons, such limitative police moves could be seen in the streets. This year, however, it's been started sooner & in a more restricted way as it seems. Also for the first time it is said that the codes for men's dress are going to be announced. Maybe men & women are reaching equality in being arrested at least!

Picture: AFP/Behrouz Mehri

PS.: It was just a snapshot. You can read more about these challenges about hijab in Iran, in the next days.