Tehran mobilises the Basij against the internal threat. The crackdown on the hijab, bars and ‘foreign agents’

Six months into the war against Iran, which began on 28 February with Operation Epic Fury, Tehran – despite economic pressure having reached its peak and its revenues having been reduced to a minimum – shows no sign of yielding. According to some sources within the regime, the greatest threat, once again, may not come from external pressures but from internal ones – namely, the possibility of new uprisings by a population worn down by inflation and repression. In recent months, distracted by the conflict with the United States, the regime is said to have relaxed controls on women’s clothing and state media; women without headscarves have appeared at demonstrations, whilst videos have been posted on social media showing young women riding scooters through the streets of Tehran with their helmets off, calling themselves ‘the Shiraz motorcyclists’. The ultra-conservative cleric Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi, a relative of the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was arrested this month after inciting his supporters to kill women not wearing the hijab in the street, former MP Gholamali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi said that the focus should be on inflation rather than the headscarf, and even the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said in an interview that his daughter sometimes disagrees with him: “Should I force her?”, he wondered.

Iranians know that the response to street protests such as those last January – which lasted over a month and were also triggered by the collapse of the rial – would be exemplary; Iranian women know that there will be no backtracking on the hijab regulations, an ideological pillar of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is partly for this reason that Mojtaba is said to have appointed Hossein Taeb as head of the Basiji paramilitary force – a move representing one of the clearest signs of official concern over a possible resurgence of protests – and to whom the leader himself is said to have entrusted the task of stepping up surveillance and facilitating repression, including by increasing the militia’s presence in neighbourhoods and mosques. A source close to the hardline faction of the ayatollahs told the Financial Times that “given the circumstances, (Taeb, ed.) was the most suitable figure for security, as he knew how to handle internal threats”, which include: “separatist movements amongst ethnic minorities in border provinces, such as Kurdish groups; popular unrest stemming from economic grievances; attempts by opposition groups to overthrow the theocracy; and the smuggling of communication equipment such as Starlink into the country”.

Amidst the climate of war, Iranians have flocked to bars and city pavements, unveiled and drinking alcohol: as a result, in recent weeks the government has rushed to take remedial action, closing dozens of cafés, restaurants and shops to regain control of public spaces, citing   “socially and morally improper conduct”, “failure to respect Islamic values” and “breaches of the regulations”. The cobblestones in pedestrian areas have also been replaced with tarmac, on the grounds of “traffic management”: several Iranian journalists have seen this as a means of facilitating access to and control of these areas by the security forces during potential unrest. In dozens of cities, businesses have been forced to close for failing to comply with dress codes and, in recent weeks, according to CNN, there has been growing clamour for a return to a hard line on what religious leaders and conservative politicians call “public nudity”. Even with regard to international journalists, last week the Iranian Parliament approved a preliminary draft of a bill criminalising contact with journalists from international media outlets considered hostile to the Islamic Republic, introducing terms such as “foreign governments” and “foreign agents” which mirror a law already in use in Russia.

According to sources close to the regime, the war against the United States has given greater impetus and scope to the Basiji volunteers, who are now authorised to defend the Islamic Republic from their own homes without having to seek permission from their commanders. In some videos circulating on social media, morality police patrols can be seen returning to the streets of Rasht, in northern Iran, where protests were concentrated earlier this year, whilst others have reported spotting a massive presence of their vans in the city of Isfahan and in the capital, Tehran.