Intimidation on the Coast; Radan Says We Will Monitor and Confront Unveiled Women at Beaches

With the onset of summer and an increase in travel in Iran, especially to the coastal provinces in the north and south of the country, the commander of the police force announced the monitoring of the country's beaches both in person and electronically to confront "norm violators." Ahmad-Reza Radan, the commander of the Islamic Republic's police, who had previously stated during the Nowruz holidays that they would confront unveiled women "intelligently" starting from April 15, said on Wednesday, June 7: "The police will monitor the beaches of the country both in person and electronically and will take necessary actions to confront norm violators as quickly as possible." According to the Young Journalists Club, Radan urged the governors of coastal provinces to make more efforts in the "cleaning up" of the sea to reduce disorder at the beaches, while emphasizing that the police will deal with individuals who violate norms at the beach according to the law. Simultaneously, the deputy police chief of Mazandaran province announced the implementation of a plan to "clean up parks and recreational areas in the province," stating: "In order to secure the parks and recreational areas, police officers have initiated a 72-hour plan to enhance social security, cleaning up parks and beaches, which has resulted in warnings being issued for 265 cases of improper hijab and dog walking." Meanwhile, Nemat Ahmadi, a legal scholar, noted on April 18 regarding the police's anti-hijab campaign that: "According to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, the prosecutor's office does not have the right to intervene in the issue of hijab and summon people, which means that the hands of the judicial agents, namely the police, are completely tied in this matter." Approximately two months after the implementation of the "intelligent confrontation with unveiled women" plan, videos circulating on social media show that many women are widely moving around in various cities of the country without paying attention to the threats from the Islamic Republic officials, wearing optional clothing. The newspaper Kayhan, two months ago, justified the government's failure regarding hijab threats and reacted to the widespread presence of women without mandatory hijab in public spaces, claiming that the images broadcasted by "Persian-language networks" of these women are "fabricated and fake."