TEHRAN: Police in Iran announced on Saturday that they have started implementing a plan to deal with women who violate the nation’s strict Islamic dress code.
The number of women violating and defying the dress code that headscarves must be used in public has increased since a protest started by the killing in custody last year of Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini, 22, for allegedly violating it.
Police said that action would be taken from Saturday (today) over violations of the law in public places, cars and other sites where headscarf is sometimes removed.
It said that for this purpose, technology would be used to identify women who break the law smartly.
The statement quoted Hassan Mofakhami, Security Police Chief, as saying that removing the headscarf is considered a crime, and the police deal with such violations within the framework of the law.
He added that people who defy the dress code are responsible for their actions and would be held accountable for their behaviour.
A wave of civil protest swept the country after Amini’s death on 16 September 2022, three days after her arrest by the morality police.
Thousands of people were apprehended, hundreds died, including members of the security forces and four people were executed due to the civil unrest following Amini’s killing, with Iran terming the protests as foreign-instigated riots.
Mofakhami also strictly warned that businesses whose employees removed their hijabs in the workplace faced closure.
Police warning
He said in such a case, police will issue a warning, but if it is repeated, the shutting down of the business will be on the agenda.
Last week, police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan announced that those who remove their hijabs would be identified using smart equipment.
