Tehran Police Chief: Guidance Patrols Will Not Use Coercive Measures

The new chief of police for Greater Tehran announced that the police's approach in implementing the 'Guidance Patrol' plan will not be 'coercive and violent,' and the foundation of this force's work in dealing with 'disorder' is 'positive.' In the past, a significant number of women and girls labeled as 'badly veiled' by security and judicial officials have been arrested. According to ILNA news agency, Hossein Rahimi on Wednesday, August 16, also described the 'main' program of the police in Greater Tehran as 'operationalizing the strategy of people-centeredness and community orientation,' which he claims will be for the 'comfort and security of all members of society.' He also warned that the police will take the 'harshest action according to law and regulations' against 'that one percent of society that disrupts public comfort' and explained that 'in the social sphere, our greatest attention is to positive interactions, and we believe we must promote public education in society.' Iranian officials have launched a plan called 'Guidance Patrol' for years to combat what they call the spread of 'bad hijab and various Western dress styles' in Iran, one of whose tasks is to confront what they consider 'unconventional' attire. However, according to some judicial and security officials, this controversial plan, which has many opponents and has not been very effective, remains on the police agenda. Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, is among the judicial officials who stated in September 2016 that it is impossible to assign 'agents' to every family and individual in the country, asserting that 'coercive' measures regarding hijab in Iran have been ineffective. In August of that year, Hossein Sajedi-Nia, the then-commander of the Greater Tehran Police, stated that 'the current situation of hijab and chastity is not befitting of an Islamic society, and monitoring the hijab situation over the past 15 years leads us to conclude that the situation has gradually worsened.' The Iranian Students Polling Agency (ISPA) also conducted a survey in 2016, which found that only 28% of Iranian women were inclined to wear 'black chador with a scarf.' Officials from Hassan Rouhani's government have previously criticized police actions regarding issues like hijab, with Rouhani himself emphasizing that 'culture cannot be established with vans, minibuses, police officers, and soldiers.' The Iranian president also opposed the plan for 'covert patrols' on April 20 of last year. Conversely, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, urged police commanders to disregard 'the opposition of some individuals or media propaganda' in implementing mandatory hijab plans and to continue their work. The disagreement among high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic regarding the implementation of the 'Guidance Patrol' plan and other social plans continues amid reports of deepening and broadening social changes in Iran. Ahmad Sahatghol, the cultural director of the Islamic Propagation Organization in Iran, stated on May 24 that '10 provinces in Iran have crossed the hijab red line,' and this issue is a 'warning bell' for the clerical community and seminaries in the Islamic Republic. He noted that 'if we evaluate the expert tables on the status of hijab in cities and provinces across the country, we will see that 10 provinces have crossed the red line of this religious obligation.'