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Police Toughen Islamic Rules in Tehran
TEHRAN, Aug 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Police have launched a war in Iran against what they call "flagrant manifestations of corruption" in the capital, as "moral decadence" and "social corruption" are allegedly on the rise, Iran's official news agency, IRNA, reported.
In a statement published Friday, the Tehran police said, "Regarding the spread of decadent Western culture in the society, police have seriously risen up against the propagators of corruption."
The campaign, which is to begin on Sunday, will involve a vast operation to remove the "signs and symbols of depravation" from public places, notably the shops of Tehran, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Police have threatened to arrest shop owners selling such pets as dogs and monkeys, a clear reference to numerous shops that cater mostly to teenagers in well-to-do northern Tehran.
Dogs are considered "najess", or impure, in Islam. In recent years, however, the keeping of dogs, and sometimes even monkeys, as house pets has become very popular, with boys and girls often seen walking their pets on the streets.
Coffee shops and restaurants will be ordered not to serve women flouting the Islamic dress code (hijab) or wearing heavy make-up.
Shopping malls will be barred from playing "illegal" music or songs, and shops are told not to display women's underwear or undressed mannequins in their windows.
"Playing any song or music in shopping centers or other public places so that it can be heard from outside, and also playing any illegal songs in places of business are forbidden," the statement said.
The tough measures come after a spate of public hangings and floggings throughout the country endorsed by Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi.
The floggings have sparked a new political dispute between conservatives and reformists.
Shahroudi on Thursday called for an all-out fight against social vices that he said have been plaguing society.
The conservative cleric defended the judiciary's performance in dealing with social vices - above all the flogging of the offenders in public. "The people have thanked the police and judiciary for carrying out punishments in public in the past months," he said.
Ayatollah Shahroudi's statements come following recent public flogging of offenders, mostly convicted on charges of drunkenness or harassment of women, which have triggered mixed reactions among Iranians, IRNA reported.
Tehran security officials, closely allied to reformist President Mohammad Khatami, have vehemently voiced their opposition to the rising tide of public floggings carried out on young people convicted of social vices over the past month, saying they were carried out without prior consultations with the interior ministry.
"These floggings, instead of making the victims repentant, increase public sympathy for them, aside from being contrary to the Islamic objective of imposing lashes," Mohammad-Javad Haq-Shenas, deputy interior minister for political affairs, told IRNA.
"The interior minister [Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari] is sharply opposed to the floggings," he said, adding "Tehran provincial officials have ruled that public floggings are to be carried out only after they have the go-ahead of political officials."
Public flogging, used in earlier times to punish social or moral derelictions, was rarely imposed in the country even before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Certain officials have, however, justified their imposition in particular cases to "effectively deter" the future commission of offenses.
On Monday, Mohsen Mussavi-Tabrizi, a cleric and member of the Experts Assembly, which appoints or dismisses the supreme leader, vehemently criticized public floggings.
"Punishments in public are not sanctioned," Tabrizi said, adding the application of such verdicts in streets and public places is an incorrect interpretation of the Qur'an.
However, some conservative theologians, such as Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Messbah Yazdi, have defended public flogging as a form of Islamic punishment, saying they are sanctioned under the unalterable, Divine laws of the Qur'an, and cannot be waived or modified to fit particular situations or modifications or conventions of some modern societies.
Iran has one of the world's youngest populations, with some 70% of its 62 million under the age of 30.
In June, Khatami was re-elected to a second four-year term in office with 77% of the vote, the majority of which came from young people, students and women, who have welcomed his reform agenda.
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