The death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman focuses attention on the Gasht-e Ershad, who monitor compliance with Islamic norms. Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, control over customs has gradually increased. The hijab has become a symbol of the protest for freedom and rights, especially for women. Demonstrations continue in at least 40 cities. The clashes have already left more than 30 dead.
Tehran () – With the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, are once again in the crosshairs of the infamous Iranian “morality police” squads. Since ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi came to power, controls on compliance with traditional Muslim customs have been tightened. Especially for women, beginning precisely with the obligation to wear the hijab, the Islamic veil, which has become a symbol of the battle for freedom and rights for the most secular and reformist sector. In this case, the young woman from Iranian Kurdistan was seen leaving a Tehran metro station, where she was on vacation, and the hijab became the cause of the arrest and violence that led to her death, although the police He denies the acts of violence.
The tragic event unleashed a wave of protests the likes of which had not been seen in the Islamic Republic for a long time, with a substantially new element: the presence of women in the front row in the struggle for freedom and rights. The civil and religious authorities apply a heavy hand with arrests, censorship, interruption of communications and blocking of the Internet. All this has not prevented the dissemination of videos and images of the demonstrations in more than 40 cities, and of the corresponding clashes, which culminated in the death of at least 31 people in recent days.
The demonstrations also reached neighboring Turkey: in Istanbul, about a hundred people gathered at the Iranian consulate to show their solidarity and offer their condolences. Some women present also made symbolic gestures of protest, such as cutting their hair and burning their hijab. From New York comes the news of the last-minute cancellation of an interview with President Ebrahim Raisi by the well-known journalist Christiane Amanpour. The latter reportedly refused to cover her head with a veil, as the Iranian delegation had demanded.
The compulsory veil and the morality police: these are the two knots around which Mahsa’s case unfolded. The Gasht-e Ershad (as they are called in Farsi) are a special brigade in charge of ensuring respect for Islamic traditions and customs, even arresting and whipping those who do not respect the rules or are dressed in an “inappropriate” way. Tara Sepehri Far, an expert on the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch (HRW), confirms that “it is difficult to find an average Iranian woman or family who has never had to face” a morality watch patrol. , since they are “very present” in the streets of small and large cities.
In general, these brigades are made up of six people, four men and two women. They have wide latitude to enforce the law, arrest and take people to newly opened detention or “re-education” centers. They are responsible for verifying the application of the sharia, in particular the obligation for women to cover their heads and wear long clothes in inconspicuous colors. Mahsa Amini reportedly ran into a patrol because “a lock of hair” was sticking out of her hijab, and thus her death sentence was signed.
In a rare interview given to the BBC, and under strict anonymity, a member of the morality police affirms that the task of these brigades is “to protect women”, because if they do not dress appropriately “they provoke men and risk consequences”, even serious ones. On many occasions, explains the source, the patrols seem to “go hunting”, willing to arrest “as many people as possible”, a guideline imposed by the authorities and which, not infrequently, is a source of discomfort. he wanted to tell them [a los detenidos] -he concludes- that I am not one of them. Most of us are simple soldiers doing compulsory military service.”
The fight to impose the veil began after the Islamic revolution of 1979 and was fueled by the supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini himself, but misunderstandings regarding its application were not lacking. It was a process that “didn’t happen suddenly, overnight,” explains the 78-year-old activist Mehrangiz Kar, but “has been increasing step by step.” First, with the women who offered the veil in the streets and then, since 1981, with the first laws that instituted its compulsory use in addition to clothing in accordance with Islamic precepts. As for the penalties for violating the precept, a 1983 parliamentary law sanctioned flogging and, more recently, imprisonment.
The institutionalization of the infamous morale squads was pushed by ultra-conservative former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. After his electoral victory in 2004, controls increased giving “formal” value to the body called to monitor customs (and women). Over time, his thugs have increasingly become the object of discontent and a symbol of repression, with one woman arrested for wearing garish lipstick, another for flashy boots deemed “too erotic.” All seasoned with punishments, even cruel ones.
And finally there was the coming to power of the current president Raisi. On August 15 last year, just days after taking office, he introduced a new list of restrictions, such as the Chinese-style video surveillance system. And he gave broad orders to the Gasht-e Ershad to apply Sharia-inspired rules, reaching extreme consequences, as the tragic case of the young Kurdish woman demonstrates. Hadi Ghaemi, director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, has no doubt that: “This time the protesters are not only demanding justice for Mahsa Amini.” “They are also protesting for the rights of women, for civil and human rights. For a life without religious dictatorship”.
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