Disturbing images have emerged of men who were arrested for wearing shorts amid a brutal crackdown by Iran’s morality police.
Officers have been seen handcuffing, swearing at and, in at least one case, beating men who dare to break the country’s strict dress code, even as summer temperatures soar.
Power cuts have occurred in Tehran and temperatures have exceeded 45ºC in recent days.
Iran’s parliament is currently debating a new bill on laws governing how men should dress, after authorities announced a clampdown on the country’s strict dress code.
The new bill defines “inappropriate dress” for men as including “wearing clothing that violates public modesty, such as clothing that does not cover a part of the body below the chest or above the ankle.”
Disturbing images have emerged of men arrested for wearing shorts amid a brutal crackdown by Iran’s morality police.
Officers have been seen handcuffing, swearing at and, in at least one case, beating men who dare to break the country’s strict dress code, even as summer temperatures soar.
The morality police line up and police offenders who violate Iran’s strict rules on what men and women can wear.
In one video, a teenager wearing Bermuda shorts and a backpack is seen with his hands cuffed behind his back as officers slowly lead him away.
It also states that anyone found “naked, semi-naked or wearing clothing deemed inappropriate in public” will be arrested.
Those who break the laws will be banned from leaving Iran and using social media for a period of six months to two years.
However, it appears that zealous police officers are enforcing the rules before they have been formally approved.
In one example, Meysam, a 35-year-old software engineer from Tehran, said he was brutally detained by morality police while wearing shorts on a hot day, he said. The telegraph.
As he was walking, a white van pulled up and three men jumped out, yelling and asking him what he thought he was doing.
“They grabbed me by the neck and forced me into the back of the van. They said they would take me to the social security police.”
Inside the van were other people, including a man and three girls, all crying, who were also detained because of their clothing.
“We never imagined that they would be so harsh on us simply for wearing shorts.”
They took him to a police station and forced him to promise that he would never wear shorts again, with no further measures.
However, the women were told that a complaint would be filed against them and sent to the prosecutor’s office.
Elsewhere, in a video that appeared online, a teenager wearing Bermuda shorts and a backpack is seen with his hands cuffed behind his back being slowly led away by officers.
Footage has also emerged showing at least three police officers in Tehran beating a man wearing shorts at a train station.
A woman wearing a long niqab looks on as an officer says: “You are a cow, you are a donkey.
‘Do you think that with a few slogans like ‘woman, life, freedom’ you can do whatever you want?’
Another officer intervenes and slaps the man in the face.
The man begs them to wear shorts because it is hot.
“You can’t,” comes the brusque reply.
In recent months, people have taken to the streets of Iran to protest against strict laws that also affect women.
The protests were sparked by public outrage following the death of 22-year-old Masha Amini in 2022.
The death of 22-year-old Masha Amini in police custody sparked global protests in 2022
Amini died in custody after flouting Iran’s ultra-conservative dress code, sparking outrage across the country and beyond.
Ms Amini died in custody after being detained by Iran’s morality police for not wearing her hijab “correctly”.
Her death sparked weeks of nationwide protests in Iran over reports that police had beaten her to death.
However, Iranian authorities denied such claims and said the woman did not die from violent blows but from multiple organ failure caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain.
Iran has seen its biggest protests since at least 2009 in response to his death, amid a standoff between a state inclined toward stricter observance of implicit religious law and a more liberal Iranian community.
Since then, Iran’s “morality police” have launched sporadic campaigns to verbally or violently detain and “re-educate” women who break the rules in response to changes in dress codes and standards.
More recently, an Iranian mother of two was allegedly shot by police in her car for violating the country’s draconian hijab rules.
Arezoo Badri, 31, was left paralyzed from the waist down after she was shot while driving home in the northern town of Noor on July 22.
Arezoo Badri, 31, was left paralyzed from the waist down after she was shot while driving home in the northern town of Noor on July 22.
Iranian police had attempted to arrest Ms Badri and confiscate her car. BBC reported.
The police commander told Iran’s state news agency that the driver failed to stop, prompting officers to open fire, although they did not name Badri as the woman involved.
Police said Ms Badri failed to stop her car when officers asked her to.
Last year, police said they would use CCTV cameras to identify female drivers or passengers who did not cover their hair and impound their cars.
In Iran, women have been required by law to wear the hijab since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and face fines or even prison sentences for violating these rules.
The nation too adopted its “moral police” at this time to regulate behavior after a period of secularization until the mid-twentieth century.
Ms Badri was first treated at a hospital in Sari, the provincial capital, where she underwent lung surgery, but was transferred a week later to Tehran.
It is believed that millions of women have been stopped by police since then to “re-educate” them about their dress code.
Another tragedy struck last October when 17-year-old Armita Geravand died in hospital after an alleged altercation with morality police at a metro station.
The teenager spent ten days in a coma but died at Fajr Hospital in Tehran.
Human rights activists say she was attacked for not covering her hair, a claim the Iranian government denies.