Firouz Farzani recounts a recent shocking meeting with Iran’s so-called morality police on a sunny day in Tehran.Farzani was walking by Tehran University, when he saw three young women leave through the main gates, where they were immediately stopped by female members of the morality police.
The morality police are there to ensure that the religious rules of Iran are being enforced at all cost. Sometimes this means whipping attendees at a mixed-gender party, sometimes it means arresting women for not having their headscarf on properly, and sometimes it means viciously beating a teenage girl for wearing ripped jeans.
The students had been modestly dressed and Farzani, wondering why they would have been stopped, eavesdropped on the conversation.
The first question asked of the students involved the makeup they were wearing – a small bit of lipstick and blusher.
One of the morality policewomen, who was wearing a full-length black chador, barked: “Why on earth you have so much make-up on your faces?”
When one young woman, dressed in a grey manteau (coverall) that reached her knees and a modest headscarf, tried to explain politely that the women were dressed appropriately, the second policewoman ordered the trio over to the police van.
Then, the girls were driven away.
Farzani may have been shocked by the events, but the people of Tehran weren’t. This is a daily occurrence for them.
One middle-aged woman who was out with her daughters, was not surprised by the lengths the morality police were sinking to, but questioned how anyone could think that the young women had been dressed inappropriately.
She said: “They call that “inappropriate hijab! It’s just a cat and mouse game for the Morality Police and it goes on every day, not only in Tehran but in all our big cities.”
One student lamented not protesting quick enough to stop the arrests and made a subtle call against voting for the ruling system.
The student said: “We should have intervened to get them released. It’s all our fault.
While a middle-aged man explained that if enough people supported regime change, then the theocracy would crumble.
He said: “I may not survive those kinds of freedoms, but the will and determination of young women like that are bound to prevail.”
Indeed, the will of the people is strong and regime change is coming faster than ever before.
