Reactions to Video of a Girl Being Beaten by Morality Police

The release of a video showing a girl being beaten by "morality police" has sparked reactions from several officials of the Islamic Republic and has led to a wave of responses on social media. In the video, first published on the Telegram channel of Masih Ali-Najad called "White Wednesdays," a verbal altercation between a young girl and several morality police officers is seen and heard, during which at least one female officer suddenly attacks the young girl, causing her to fall helplessly to the ground. Iranian media reported that Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, the Minister of Interior, called for an investigation into the matter on Thursday, April 30. However, the Iranian police expressed regret over the incident while urging women to observe "social decorum." According to Tasnim, the spokesperson for the Islamic Republic's police stated that "such behaviors are not endorsed" and indicated that initial investigations suggest the incident occurred in one of Tehran's parks, with the Tehran police currently examining the issue. On the other hand, Masoumeh Ebtekar, the Vice President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs, condemned the behavior attributed to the morality police, calling it "violent and un-Islamic." Shahindokht Molaverdi, the President's Special Assistant for Citizen Rights, also considered the release of the video as evidence of the "necessity to change the approach of cultural and law enforcement institutions." Social media users reacted widely to the video on Thursday, expressing concern about more overt violence in places without cameras. The release of the new video comes about forty days after the Supreme Leader's speech, in which he implicitly referred to the girls of Enghelab Street as "deceived" and described their movement as "despicable" and a result of "the extensive propaganda of enemies and their exorbitant costs." In recent months, a number of women, known as the "Girls of Enghelab Street," have protested against mandatory hijab and gender inequalities by raising their headscarves in public places. These protests have led to the arrest of over 35 women, including Vida Mohaghegh, Narges Hosseini, Azam Jangravi, Shaparak Shajari-Zadeh, and Maryam Shari'at-Madari. Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli stated that the "severity" applied to hijab enforcement since the revolution has "not achieved the desired result." Currently, Iran is the only country where "observance of hijab" is mandatory for all women, including non-Muslim or foreign women.