ICC Note:
Iranian police authorities say they will no longer arrest people for breaching Islamic codes, and instead will educate them. This is not the first time that the authorities have alleged that they will relax the regime’s morality police, and some Iranians have speculated that the authorities are only making this announcement because detention centers are full. Christians are regularly targeted by the regime’s police, and it is unlikely that their situation would change even if the authorities followed through on their announcement. After all, being a Christian in Iran is still perceived as being against the state and conversion is punishable by death.
12/29/17 Iran (Wall Street Journal) – Authorities in Tehran will no longer arrest people for breaches of Islamic codes, the Iranian capital’s police chief said Wednesday, a sign of easing social strictures under relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani.
Echoing a similar shift in Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main regional rival, Brig. Gen. Hossein Rahimi said police would change tactics in enforcing Islamic values, after decades of fines, detentions and even lashings for infractions as minor as women wearing nail polish, heavy makeup or tying their headscarves too loosely. Iranian women have been obliged to wear headscarves in public since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, which melded government with Islam.
“Based on a society-oriented, educational approach, the police will not arrest those who don’t respect Islamic values,” Gen. Rahimi said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. “It will instead educate them.”
Authorities in Tehran will no longer arrest people for breaches of Islamic codes, the Iranian capital’s police chief said Wednesday, a sign of easing social strictures under relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani.
Echoing a similar shift in Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main regional rival, Brig. Gen. Hossein Rahimi said police would change tactics in enforcing Islamic values, after decades of fines, detentions and even lashings for infractions as minor as women wearing nail polish, heavy makeup or tying their headscarves too loosely. Iranian women have been obliged to wear headscarves in public since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, which melded government with Islam.
“Based on a society-oriented, educational approach, the police will not arrest those who don’t respect Islamic values,” Gen. Rahimi said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. “It will instead educate them.”
…
For interviews with Claire Evans, ICC’s Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org.
