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In modern usage, hijab generally refers to various head coverings conventionally worn by many Muslim women. While a hijab can come in many forms, it often specifically refers to a headscarf, wrapped around the head, covering the hair, neck and ears, but leaving the face visible. Many Muslims believe that Muslim women are required to observe the hijab in front of any man they could theoretically marry. This means that hijab is not obligatory in front of the father, brothers, grandfathers, uncles or young children or regarded as mahram's.
The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is a government religious authority in Saudi Arabia that is charged with implementing the Islamic doctrine of hisbah in the country. Established in 1940, the body gained extensive powers in the 1980s and continued to function as a semi-independent civilian law enforcement agency for almost 35 years until 2016, when societal reforms driven by then-deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman led to limiting some its authority through a royal decree by King Salman bin Abdulaziz, including the rights of pursuing, questioning, detaining and interrogating suspects.
Religious police are any police force responsible for the enforcement of religious norms and associated religious laws. Nearly all religious police organizations in modern society are Islamic and can be found in countries with a large Muslim populace, such as Saudi Arabia or Iran. The responsibilities of religious police heavily vary by religion and culture. For example, the Islamic religious police prioritize the prevention of alcohol consumption, playing of music, public displays of affection, Western holidays, and prayer time absences. On the other hand, the religious police force in Vietnam are responsible for monitoring religious extremists, such as Dega Protestants or Ha Mon Catholics. As of 2012, at least 17 nations have police that enforce religious norms, according to a new Pew Research analysis of 2012 data. These actions are particularly common in the Middle East and North Africa, where roughly one-third of countries (35%) have police enforcing religious norms. As of 2012, religious police forces were not present in any country in Europe or the Americas.
The Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran, previously known as the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran or Disciplinary Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran, abbreviated as Faraja, is the uniformed police force in Iran. The force was created in early 1992 by merging the Shahrbani, Gendarmerie, and Islamic Revolutionary Committees into a single force. It has more than 60,000 police personnel, including border guard personnel, and is under the direct control of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who is the head of state and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. In 2003, some 400 women became the first female members of the police force since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The Guidance Patrol, commonly called the "morality police", was a vice squad/Islamic religious police in the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran, established in 2005 with the task of arresting people who violate the Islamic dress code, usually concerning the wearing by women of hijabs covering their hair.
Hisbah is an Islamic doctrine referring to upholding "community morals", based on the Quranic injunction to "enjoin good and forbid wrong".
Reza Zarei is a former chief of Tehran Police in charge of the Guidance Patrol for Islamic values.
The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is the state agency in charge of implementing Islamic law in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as defined by the Taliban. It was first instituted in 1992 by the Rabbani government of the Islamic State of Afghanistan and adopted in 1996 by the Taliban government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan of 1996–2001. The ministry was restored in the reinstated Islamic Emirate in September 2021 after the August fall of Kabul.
Mishmeret tzniyut is a self-appointed vigilante gang that operates in Haredi communities to enforce modesty through violence and intimidation.
The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is a group in the Palestinian territory of Gaza Strip, responsible for enforcing traditional Muslim codes of behavior (Sharia). According to journalist Khaled Abu Toameh and Middle East researcher Dr. Jonathan Spyer, the group forms part of the police forces of the Hamas de facto government.
Islamic religious police are official Islamic vice squad police agencies, often in Islamic countries, which enforce religious observance and public morality on behalf of national or regional authorities based on its interpretation of sharia. Modern Islamic religious police forces were first established in the late-1970s amidst the Iranian Revolution and the Islamic revival the revolution brought; prior, the administration of public morality in most Islamic countries was considered a socioreligious matter, and was enforced through application of civil laws or through more informal means.
Islamism in the Gaza Strip involves efforts to promote and impose Islamic laws and traditions in the Gaza Strip. The influence of Islamic groups in the Gaza Strip has grown since the 1980s. Following Hamas' victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections and a conflict with supporters of the rival Fatah party, Hamas took complete control of the Gaza Strip, and declared the "end of secularism and heresy in the Gaza Strip". For the first time since the Sudanese coup of 1989 that brought Omar al-Bashir to power, a Muslim Brotherhood group ruled a significant geographic territory. Gaza human-rights groups accuse Hamas of restricting many freedoms in the course of these attempts.
A group of vigilantes calling themselves "Muslim patrols" patrolled the streets in East London from 2013 to 2014. The individuals were young Sunni Muslim men, members of an organisation that called itself the "Shariah Project". Early in 2013, videos of their activities, filmed by members of the patrol, were uploaded online: these showed hooded members confronting passers-by and demanding that they behave in an Islamic way. They targeted prostitutes, people drinking alcohol, couples who were holding hands, women whom they considered to be dressed immodestly, and harassed others whom they perceived as being gay. Five men were arrested in January 2013 as part of an investigation into the gang. In December 2013, three of them pleaded guilty to affray, and were subsequently jailed.
A series of acid attacks on women in the Iranian city of Isfahan starting sometime around October 2014, raised fears and prompted rumours that the victims were targeted for not being properly veiled. As of October 27, 2014, at least twenty-five such attacks had occurred in Isfahan. At least one woman died and many more received severe burns to their faces and hands. Following public outrage over the attacks, the Iranian Parliament passed a law in 2019 that provided broader legal protection to survivors and increased the prison term for perpetrators of acid attacks.
The Guidance Patrol or morality police is an Islamic religious police force and vice squad in the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Guidance Patrol enforced Sharia—Islamic law—per laws in Iran; this is most often the enforcement of Islamic dress code, such as ensuring women in the country wear hijabs. The Guidance Patrol was formed in 2005 as a successor organisation to the older Islamic Revolution Committees, and reports to the Supreme Leader.
The Girls of Enghelab protests are protests against the compulsory hijab in Iran, part of the wider Iranian Democracy Movement. The protests were inspired by Vida Movahed, an Iranian woman known as the Girl of Enghelab Street, who stood in the crowd on a utility box on Enghelab Street in Tehran on 27 December 2017 during the 2017–2018 Iranian protests who tied a white headscarf, to a stick, and waved it to the crowd as a flag. She was arrested on that day and was released temporary on bail a month later, on 28 January 2018. Some people interpreted Movahed's action as being based on Masih Alinejad's call for White Wednesdays, a protest movement that the presenter at VOA Persian Television started in early 2017. Other women later re-enacted her protest and posted photos of their actions on social media. These women are described as the "Girls of Enghelab Street" and the "Girls of Revolution Street" in English sources. Some of the protesters however claim that they were not following Masih Alinejad's call. The protests intensified in 2022 due to the death of Mahsa Amini.
On International Women's Day on March 8, 1979, a women's march took place in Tehran in Iran. The march was originally intended to celebrate the International Women's Day, but transformed into massive protests against the changes taking place in women's rights during the Iranian revolution, specifically the introduction of mandatory hijab (veiling), which had been announced the day before. The protests lasted for six days, from 8 March to 14 March 1979, with thousands of women participating. The protests were met with violence and intimidation by pro-Khomeini Islamist forces.
On 16 September 2022, the 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini, died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, under suspicious circumstances. The Guidance Patrol, the religious morality police of Iran's government, arrested Amini for allegedly not wearing the hijab in accordance with government standards. The Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran stated that she had a heart attack at a police station, collapsed, and fell into a coma before being transferred to a hospital. However, eyewitnesses, including women who were detained with Amini, reported that she was severely beaten and that she died as a result of police brutality, which was denied by the Iranian authorities. The assertions of police brutality, in addition to leaked medical scans, led some observers to believe Amini had a cerebral hemorrhage or stroke due to head injuries received after her arrest.
Civil unrest and protests against the government of Iran associated with the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini began on 16 September 2022, carried on into 2023, but were said to have "dwindled" or "died down" by spring 2023, and the "ruling elite" remaining "deeply entrenched in power" by September 2023. The protests have been called "unlike any the country had seen before", the "biggest challenge" to the government, and "most widespread revolt", since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Hijab, the traditional head covering worn by Muslim women for modesty for centuries, have been a subject of controversy in recent times in Iran. In the 1920s a few women started to appear unveiled. Under Reza Shah it was discouraged and then banned in 1936 for five years. Under Reza Shah's successor, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, hijab was considered "backward" and rarely worn by upper and middle-class people. Consequently, it became a symbol of opposition to the shah in 1970s, and was worn by women who previously would have been unveiled.
The Gilan sex scandals are a series of leaked sex videos occurred in Gilan province, Iran that reveal the involvement of some ultra-conservative Iranian officials in gay activities, which are considered a crime by the state, those who were involved in the scandals were a part of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which is responsible for enforcing the Islamic republic's prescribed lifestyle to the nation. The leaked videos expose the double standards of the officials involved. The whistleblower revealed the details on a Telegram channel named "Radio Gilan." Homosexuality is illegal in Iran, and punishable by imprisonment, abuse, fines, or execution.
References
- ↑ Dehghan, Saeed Kamali (2018-07-09). "Woman arrested in Iran over Instagram video of her dancing". The Guardian . ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 2019-08-25.
- ↑ Novak, Matt (9 July 2018). "Girl Arrested in Iran for Posting Videos of Herself Dancing on Instagram". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2019-08-25.
- ↑ "Springtime In Iran Means The 'Morality Police' Are Out In Force". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-08-25.
- ↑ ""Modesty Patrols" Sow Fear In Israel". CBS News. Retrieved 2019-08-25.
- ↑ "Israeli government to issue guidelines for how women should dress 'modestly'" . The Independent . 2016-08-29. Archived from the original on 2022-05-15. Retrieved 2019-08-25.