The Iranian morality police are back on the streets enforcing the country’s strict Islamic dress code, authorities said Sunday.
During nationwide anti-government protests last year, the morality police were essentially told to chill out and relax enforcement on women not wearing hijab.
However, they were never disbanded, and after 10 months on the sidelines, police spokesman Gen. Saeed Montazerolmahdi said Sunday that officers would be back on foot and vehicle patrols across Tehran and other cities.
The morality police will “issue warnings and then introduce to the judicial system people” who violated the rules that require women to wear headscarves outside their homes, Montazerolmahdi told state-affiliated media.
Last year’s protests began after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, died in police custody in September. Amini had been arrested by the morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly.
The massive demonstrations swelled to include widespread anti-government beliefs, in which protesters called for Iran’s theocratic leadership to relinquish power. But the government responded with force, killing at least 500 protesters and detaining another 20,000 people.
Even after the protests died down, women in Iran continued to forgo the headscarf in public in a sign of dissent against the government. In April, Iranian authorities instituted a surveillance system in April to catch anyone violating the dress code, according to Al-Jazeera.
Activists were furious with the return of the morality police. Young actor Mohammed Sadeghi commented on a video of a woman being accosted by the officers, “Believe me, if I see such a scene, I might commit murder.”
Officers arrested Sadeghi at a raid on his home Saturday night and charged him with threatening police officers.