Iran maintains its iron fist amid confused versions of the future of the Morale Police

Tehran prepares "more modern methods" to enforce the mandatory veil law while the situation of the protests, according to the Basij, is "serious"

MADRID, 11 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The authorities in Iran maintain their iron fist against protesters who take to the streets to protest the death of the young Mahsa Amini while making confusing statements about the future of the Morale Police.

Iran's Attorney General, Mohamad Jafar Montazeri, assured on Sunday during a meeting in the city of Qom, one of the holiest cities in the country, that the Morale Police did not report directly to the Iranian Judiciary and that it had been " dismantled" by "the very people who created it.

His ambiguous statements were disseminated through social networks and various Western media outlets, which considered this mechanism "abolished", while Iranian media, such as Al Alam public television, stated that the reading made by the West had nothing to do with the words spoken by the prosecutor.

"The media were selling it as if it were a victory (achieved by the protests) and this is not a concession. The Iranian public is not seeing it that way either," explained political analyst specializing in Iran, Daniel Bashandeh, in statements to Europa Press.

In this sense, Bashandeh has stressed that the Morale Police, whose job is to "pursue and ensure dress codes", is "within the internal Iranian Police", for which reason the term "abolish", which is used for institutions, it would not be suitable either.

"One of the problems when it comes to understanding this is that when the attorney general says to abolish it, he doesn't have the power to do it (because) it's a government power," Bashandeh said, adding that "it's complicated." know who has authority in this matter because "there is no legal certainty" in the country.

In addition, Bashandeh has made it clear that the regime does not have "a homogeneous discourse or a discursive line" to face the protests. "It doesn't seem like there is a strategy beyond using repression against the protesters," he said.

"They do not have control of the times. There is a communication crisis around the measures and, above all, there are several interlocutors talking who contradict each other," added the analyst.

Faced with these statements, the reality is very different in Iran. An Iranian government spokesman and also a spokesman for the committee that oversees the application of moral values, Ali Khan Mohamadi, stated that Tehran is preparing "more modern methods", referring to surveillance technology, to strengthen the application of the law on the mandatory use of hijab.

In fact, Bashandeh has stressed that "the latest statements by parliamentary forces" show that these policies are going to get tougher. "A spokesman for the cultural commission in parliament also said that anyone who opposed hijab would be excluded from society," he said.

The law forcing women to cover their hair in public in Iran has been in force since the 1979 Revolution and was pioneered by the late Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini. "Nobody wants to contradict his word," Bashandeh says before a regulation found in the Penal Code.

"It is not only a legal question, but a symbolic and political one. They are ending (within the framework of the protests) the symbols of the Islamic Republic," he indicated, adding that "the more the regime hardens its policy, the more distance there will be with the population".

While the Iranian regime tries to "sell" to the international community that "the problem has ended", the executions against the demonstrators who have been taking to the streets since September in different parts of the country to protest the repression and the death of the young Mahsa Amini continue.

Mohsen Shekari, a 23-year-old accused of "intentionally" wounding a Basij paramilitary with a long knife, was the first protester to be hanged on Thursday after a trial in which he did not have legal representation, according to his mother, who asked for clemency against his son.

"Right now the issue of executions is going to be key to giving people more reasons to demonstrate," Bashandeh said, adding that social networks help a lot to know what is happening.

On the role of the basijíes, Bashandeh has pointed out that "they are the weakest link" of the Islamic Republic of Iran, since "they are volunteers, they are poorly paid and they are the first to show their faces", so " people identify them and put faces to them".

"There have been Basijites who have died (...) They have asked for firearms and Khamenei himself (current Iranian supreme leader) has supported them," explained the analyst, stressing that "they are the first shield" of the regime, therefore that "if they fall" it would mean that "the first line of defense" of the regime would collapse.

The situation in the country is "serious", according to a deputy commander of the Basij forces during a meeting with several members of the paramilitary group that was published in various Iranian media outlets after a Black Reward 'hack' of the Fars news agency. .

Hence there is "a battle for the story." "And it is clear that that of the regime is not sustained", Bashandeh stressed, who also explained that the protest movement is beginning to be "more transversal", with very powerful actions such as the gesture of cutting the hair, the songs in Farsi with the motto 'Woman, Life and Liberty' or remove the turban from the clergy.

In addition, the demonstrators in Iran have begun to carry out other types of political acts of protest, such as going out on the streets or going to public institutions without a veil, in the case of women, or the burning of Khomeini's former residence in the town of Khomein.

The protests have now evolved into a strike in the commerce sector called by social and political organizations, so the economic factor has come into play and could be "a problem for the Government." Thus, Bashandeh has given the example of the general strike faced by the Shah of Iran, Mohamed Reza Pahlavi.

"Iran is the greatest exponent of political Islam in the world and that in the name of Islam it is doing what it is doing has no justification for the population. And also, the population has a very high indifference to religion, especially the generations younger", has sentenced.

The repression of the security forces against the demonstrations has caused the death of more than 440 people, including dozens of children, according to human rights groups. In addition, according to reports, at least 18,000 people have been detained as part of the protests.