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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/07/iran-introduces-2000-new-morality-police-units-response-womens/">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/07/iran-introduces-2000-new-morality-police-units-response-womens/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:8.05pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:8.05pt;margin-left:0in">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Iran – Launch of 2,000 New Morality Police Units in Response to Women's Hijab Protests
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;vertical-align:middle">
<![if !supportLists]><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:#333333"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><img border="0" width="480" height="300" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D52150.9E5EF060" alt="Young Iranian women in Tehran"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Telesans Text Regular";color:#333333">Young Iranian women in Tehran</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Telesans Text Regular";color:#333333;text-transform:uppercase">Credit: Getty Images
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Austin News Text Semibold";color:#333333">By
<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/ahmed-vahdat/"><span style="color:#D10A11;text-decoration:none">Ahmed Vahdat</span></a> -
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">7 June 2019
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Iran has introduced 2,000 new morality police units in reaction to what officials call an “increasing
defiance” of the compulsory wearing of hijabs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">The units, called “resistance groups for verbal and practical response to bad-hijabi women”,
were launched recently in the northern province of Gilan as part of a pilot scheme.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#C00000">They are each made up of six women who have the power to arrest and detain those they deem
to be flouting the country’s strict veiling laws.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">The move comes amid a<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/03/refused-wear-hijab-prison-now-nasrin-sotoudeh-defending-women/"><span style="color:#428BCA;text-decoration:none">
growing backlash by women</span></a> in the Islamic Republic, hundreds of whom have been arrested for taking off their head coverings in public in protest at the law.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">A campaign by rights activists called “White Wednesday” encouraging women to wear white and
discard their hijabs has also gained support, much to the consternation of conservative clerics.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">While Iran has had various forms of "morality police" since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the
decision to increase their numbers as well as introduce all-female brigades, is a sign that authorities are adopting a tougher approach.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Mohammad Abdulahpour, the commander of Gilan province’s Revolutionary Guards unit, has said
that the survival of the Islamic revolution depends on the full implementation of Islamic traditions and that “the issue of hijab is not a simple matter, but rather a serious political and security issue for our country.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“The enemy is heavily investing in changing our nation’s culture to adopt a Western lifestyle,”
Mr Abdulahpour told local Tasnim news agency.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Cleric Rasoul Falahati, representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in the province,
condemned women who defy the hijab as an insult to the Islamic Republic.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“We do not wish to show a violent image of our religion, but models and promoters of vile fashions
not only defy the hijab,” he said. “But are nowadays appearing almost naked on our streets.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Iran’s police have also recently installed special cameras on the country’s highways to take
photos of those female drivers who remove their hijab once they leave the town centres.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Women’s rights defenders across the country have joined an unprecedented protest movement against
veiling laws in Iran.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Women began taking to the streets last year, silently waving their headscarves on the ends
of sticks. In response, they suffered a backlash from the authorities, facing violent assault, arrest and torture, and some were jailed after what human rights groups called unfair trials.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Nasrin Sotoudeh, prominent human rights lawyer, was sentenced last May to seven years in prison
after defending the protesters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Both President Hassan Rouhani and Ayatollah Khamenei support a softer attitude toward women
who do not properly follow the dress code, although hardliners who are opposed to any such easing still dominate Iran’s security forces and the judiciary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">A recent study by Iran’s parliament showed that up to 70 per cent of the female population
would like to see the relaxing of laws on the mandatory wearing of headscarves, while 30 per cent accepted it as part of the national culture.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">___________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></p>
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