Mother of Child Assaulted by Morality Police: Judge Threatened Me Not to File a Complaint

Maryam Abbasi, the mother of 14-year-old Nafas Hajji Sharif, who was violently arrested by the 'morality police' in July 2023, revealed new details about her complaint against the officers involved in the 'Noor Plan.' She stated that the juvenile court judge threatened her, saying, 'If you file a complaint, security and the Ministry of Intelligence will get involved, and they will charge you with actions against national security.' In an interview with Etemad newspaper, Maryam Abbasi recounted that as soon as they entered the juvenile court, the judge compared her daughter to Sepideh Ghalean and said, 'I told Sepideh Ghalean's family not to make the issue public; you saw what happened.' She responded, 'Why are you comparing? We are not filing a complaint.' She further stated that they were told, 'If you file a complaint, security and the Ministry of Intelligence will get involved, and they will charge you with actions against national security.' Maryam Abbasi emphasized that 'they wanted to intimidate us. I said I would agree, and they returned the documents to us. They also instructed the security police officer to register the case. However, my daughter, my lawyer, and I left the juvenile court without signing the minutes.' She added that the next morning, she received a phone call from the juvenile court judge's office threatening her, 'If you do not come, a warrant for your arrest will be issued.' I asked, 'For what reason?' In another part of the interview, Maryam Abbasi stated that during the court session for 'reconciliation with the morality police officers,' she declared that she had seen the most unethical and rude officers at the moral security police center. The officers at the reconciliation session said, 'Your daughter does not look like she is 14 years old.' I replied, 'My daughter was actually 30 years old; according to your law, you had no right to assault her.' The mother of Nafas Hajji Sharif added that she told the police that their subordinates were showing them a coordinated performance to conceal their misconduct. They transferred my daughter from the first van to the second to cover up their violations. She provided more details about the video that went viral on social media, stating, 'There are two very important points in the video. One is that a woman is present at the scene trying to film while my daughter is being assaulted, but two male officers approach her, take her phone, and force her to delete the video.' According to Abbasi, the second point is that 'when they are beating my daughter, one of the officers' hijabs falls off, and instead of stopping to fix her hijab, she continues with the assault despite having three other officers present.' She added, 'If it were any other duty besides hijab enforcement, for example, if my daughter had committed theft, this incident might have been justifiable. However, she was being assaulted for hijab enforcement. In that case, when her female colleague threw my daughter into the van, they should have also grabbed her colleague's hair and thrown her into the van.' Maryam Abbasi has filed complaints with five judicial and law enforcement authorities against the team of officers who violently arrested her daughter Nafas and her friend that day and took them to the 'Gisha Moral Security Base,' including the military prosecutor's office, NAJA inspection, Faraja information protection, Faraja inspection, and NAJA general inspection. Previously, Ahmadreza Radan, the commander of Faraja, did not deem the behavior of the morality police officers in the video of the arrest of these two 14-year-old girls as incorrect, merely stating that 'the behavior of those girls was bad, and the police's behavior was somewhat unprofessional.' This incident occurred while Masoud Pezeshkian, the head of the 14th government, during his competition with five other candidates selected by the Guardian Council to succeed Raisi, stated, 'I guarantee that the entire government will stand firmly against compulsory patrols, filtering, and external pressures in all sessions.' Pezeshkian's claims come at a time when, weeks after the video was released, there has been no response to this issue, and those close to him have not made any specific statements. The complaint case of Nafas against the officers of the 'Noor Plan' is still unresolved; the security police refuse to provide the morality patrol videos. The Human Rights Defenders Center stated: 'The courage and resistance of Iranian girls and women against oppression and repression is inspiring.' The head of the Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic threatened a journalist who protested against the morality police with 'confrontation.' The UN fact-finding committee stated: 'The Iranian government has intensified its efforts to suppress women and girls on the second anniversary of the nationwide protests.'