"Non Islamic clothes" in Tehran lead to arrests, fines, confiscated cars
The religious police are fighting resistance against the Islamization of society, a struggle that may find expression in a future law about clothing. Speculation about distinctive emblems according to religion is not credible.
Tehran (AsiaNews) "We have already admonished and 'educated' 32,000 women and 64 men for their clothing and behaviour", said the Tehran police chief, Morteza Talaei. He was speaking on 23 May, giving a first account of the work of the Police Guidance Patrols (religious police) introduced in the Iranian capital. In all, 7,000 shops have been visited, and 190 were fined for violating the ban on selling non "Islamic" clothes and other goods. More harshly, 230 cars were confiscated because "they were creating problems with women", according to Talaei. This probably meant women who were only partially veiled in a space not considered by Iranian law to be private. Talaei also talked about 164 pedestrians arrested for similar reasons: 119 women and 45 men.
Thus, more than 32,000 people have made it to the lists of the mullahs' regime, or have another black note in their personal records, but Tehran has 12 million residents. The dozen or so control personnel of the Guidance Patrols will not be enough to eradicate the passive or active resistance, under way for 25 years now, against the total Islamization of dress. Police efforts, following on orders of the bassij (Islamic-revolutionary "volunteers", numbering one million in Iran), have only a limited impact, but they do contribute to blocking or slowing down the evolution of society, and to creating a prevalent climate of fear and self-censorship. These efforts seem to be not only ridiculous but even scandalous for many residents of Tehran, who think the town authorities and police should be more concerned about dealing with traffic. In Tehran, the problem is not women without veils in cars, but the cars themselves, often old Paykan, an Iranian model of car that should really not be on the roads anymore. In a city almost without a public transport network, with chaotic traffic, faulty roads and pollution, the consequences are quite dramatic: 27 deaths per day (official statistics) due to air pollution alone. It must be recalled that President Ahmadinejad graduated in traffic management and that he was briefly, until he was elected, mayor of Tehran.
The desire to return to the origins of the Islamic Revolution and to forget about the albeit very limited reforms of Khatami, is not only the political programme of Ahmadinejad. The Iranian parliament, which blocked many proposals of his predecessor, is continuing to work on the "Islamic national dress". This law, accompanied by commercial measures, would give more force and clarity to the current efforts of the Guidance Patrols.
In the New York Post of 20 May a daily newspaper that does not enjoy the same reputation for serious journalism as the New York Times and the Washington Post, published a very worrying news item about the proposed Iranian law on clothing. One Amir Taheri said the law being debated included provisions for an item of clothing or distinctive emblem for Jewish, Christian and Zoroastrian minorities, so that, he continued, "Muslims will be able to identify non-Muslims and avoid offering their hand by mistake". This statement, coming from a person judged by the Jewish spokesman in Iran not to be too serious, is based on historical fact: there really existed a special dress code for minorities in the Middle Ages, both Arab-Muslims and European-Christians. However, the logic of the current Iranian Islamic Republic is not to create, first of all, ghettoes and special regulations for dhimmi, non-Muslim citizens who are second class. It is rather the contrary: everyone must follow the Islamic rules even veils for women who are visiting, including foreign Ministers and contribute to give the impression of "normality" and "universality" of Muslim civilization as defined by the mullahs.
Expecting Christians or Jews to wear visible, distinctive signs of their identity carries the paradoxical risk of an identical statement by other minorities, like Sunni Kurds or Arabs who, in so doing, would show their own identity. In a young society like Iran, if a uniform a la Mao were to be imposed on everyone, the existence of distinctive emblems may just give ideas to dissident movements, like the students protesting against the arrest of Jahanbegloo, or the drivers in Tehran and other trade unionists submitted to severe repression. Clearly, however, the interests of the Iranian system lie in imposing an "Islamic normality" without exception, with a choice of decent and neutral dresses for men and women.
But if the idea advanced by Taheri should concretize, the biggest and most immediate risk, for the Iranian regime, would naturally be that of provoking the legitimate anger of the rest of the world, especially where the memories of Nazism remain strong. Taheri's statements to the New York Post are in line with fears borne of Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust. Imposing special emblems and clothes for Jews and other groups would be another reason to compare Ahmadinejad to Hitler, and the bassij to the Hitler Jugend, and the parallel army of the Guardians of the Revolution to the Gestapo. This parallelism is already used in the speeches of US neo-conservatives and Israeli leaders among others. It is a vision that doubtless serves to justify an unbending attitude towards Iran, if not military intervention.
Alas, for some Iranians MPs, the racist and provocative aspect of such a discriminatory law would be an argument in favour of and not against it. The Iranian regime, in its fantasies of living and letting the people if not the rest of the world live, does not hesitate to play with fire. Some actually hope for escalated tensions and military risks. The Islamic Republic may be ready to take on the world with one more indecency, but in the strategy of maintaining social control and power structures, it will probably be afraid of imposing one measure too many. The Guidance Patrols may be, for years to come, the only concrete measure taken about the "Islamic national dress", now the stuff of dreams.
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05/12/2022 18:58
