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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran cracks down on insufficiently veiled women
2004-07-12
Iranian security forces have stepped up what appears to be a major crackdown on insufficiently veiled women by launching raids, witnesses said Monday. According to one witness, scores of policemen - and policewomen in chadors - raided the Milad commercial centre in the west of Tehran on Sunday, and detained dozens of young women deemed not to be respecting the Islamic dress code. They also confiscated coats they considered to be too transparent or figure-hugging. Another resident reported a similar raid in the Sorkheh Bazar shopping centre in the central district of Vanak, with dozens more young girls also arrested. One man said he had to go to release his cousin from police custody, but added that the woman was only freed on condition that she return for a course in Islamic morals.
Your normal "islamic reducation" class for wayward girls.
In recent weeks a string of similar raids have been reported, mainly in the more upmarket north of the capital. Scores of young girls have been seen being taken away from commercial centres in minibuses operated by the police.
How many are seen again?
Police and Islamic militiamen have also reportedly stepped up their raids on private parties where they suspect the presence of alcohol or mixed-sex dancing.
The horrors, young people are having fun! It must be stopped!
But it remains unclear if the current clampdown is the usual pre-summer anti-vice operation, or a sign of stricter rules following the shift to the right of the regime following February's parliament election of conservatives.
I'll take "Consolidation of Power" for $200, Alex.
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, all post-pubescent females are required to wear the veil and a long coat that conceals their bodily form. Violators risk fines or imprisonment. However in large cities in recent years, many women have progressively flouted the rules by wearing flimsy headscarfs and brightly-coloured, short and skimpy coats.
Just how long are their boyfriends going to put up with this?
Posted by:Steve

#17  Note to GWB: Are you watching these developments? Do you have a plan?

The other day, I spoke to a recent immigrant from Iran. He was a student, 19 years old. The conversation was pleasant and normal. He agreed with me that the mad mullahs were taking the country and its people back to the middle ages. He said the people are not afraid anymore of them, even though arrests are common and torture is used extensively. He even described how some youths regularly ambush those Islamic miliatiamen on motorcycles, and beat them to a pulp.

He then said something that utterly floored me. He claimed the current Iranian theocracy is backed by the US. And he wasn't joking. He believed it. I asked him if he meant the Iranian Shah, of the 1970s. Nope. He said the mad mullahs were puppets of the US.

I then understood what had happened. Temporarily I had entered a parallel universe where one could have a normal discussion with Middle Eastern (Persian to be precise) muslims. It lasted a brief moment, because as quickly as I could blink, I was pulled back into the regular universe that I was familiar with: the US, a.k.a The Great Satan, must be hated no matter what the common interests you share.

So, no matter how many plans GWB (or Kerry) may have, they will never find any friends in that part of the world. IMHO.
Posted by: Rafael   2004-07-12 9:45:18 PM  

#16  Zenster -hearty laughs
Posted by: jules 2   2004-07-12 9:14:16 PM  

#15  And Persian women can be SO purdy..... sigh.....
Posted by: Wuzzalib   2004-07-12 8:45:21 PM  

#14  TW: that could explain Arab/Islamic sexual mores in a whole new light. If they got virtuous, they'd all look the same within a few generations.
Posted by: therien   2004-07-12 7:12:34 PM  

#13  Under the Taliban, the women demonstrated that just about anything can be hidden under the burka. The mullahs are heading deep into "be careful what you wish for" territory, methinks.
Posted by: trailing wife   2004-07-12 6:12:46 PM  

#12  The Revolution saw "reformed" hookers using thumbtacks to pin veils on "immodest" women. I wonder how bad it'll get this time.
Posted by: therien   2004-07-12 3:41:56 PM  

#11  Iran cracks down on insufficiently veiled women

We need a crackdown on INSUFFICIENTLY DEAD MULLAHS! Decap Iran's government now.
Posted by: Zenster   2004-07-12 3:34:59 PM  

#10  Debit Marx Credit Lenin
Debit Trotsky Credit Stalin
Debit 5 Yr Pan Credit Wishful Thinking

==================
Paradise

Posted by: Artur Andersonovitch   2004-07-12 1:15:36 PM  

#9  The mullahs better cool it, or soon they themselves will be head-to-toe in a burka.
Posted by: Mark Espinola   2004-07-12 12:18:57 PM  

#8  i must say im more with BAR than with Anon, on this. In Iran, the worse it is, the better it is (credit to Lenin)
Posted by: Liberalhawk   2004-07-12 11:36:42 AM  

#7  I'd like to see even more intrusive mullah-inspired crackdowns. These have the potential to hasten the demise of Iran's cleric rule that much quicker. (Note to GWB: Are you watching these developments? Do you have a plan?)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-07-12 11:03:40 AM  

#6  Unfortunately, I saw this coming. Despite the elections being rigged, election boycotts almost always backfire. Had they voted in force for whatever reformers they could have gotten, it would have a least put a few stumbling blocks in front of the fanatics, who now have a free hand.

Call it a modified version of the Aesop Fable of the frogs and King Log. Except in this case, the unhappy frogs have King Log replaced with King Dork.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2004-07-12 10:55:10 AM  

#5  Or their, erm, "misunderstanding". (Hat tip: Indiana Jones)
Posted by: eLarson   2004-07-12 10:27:41 AM  

#4  Off with their hands?
Posted by: ed   2004-07-12 10:24:42 AM  

#3  Just in terms of healthy sexual expression alone the men in that world should be standing up for our side. What is the Islamic punishment for masturbation, anyway?
Posted by: jules 187   2004-07-12 10:18:24 AM  

#2  little erections...which explains a LOT of the cultural issues they have with women
Posted by: Frank G   2004-07-12 10:08:31 AM  

#1  Awwwww, poor little Islamists are getting erections and are embarrassed...awww...
Posted by: jules 187   2004-07-12 10:03:59 AM  

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