NCRI – Last week six women and a man touring the southern city of Shiraz were beaten and arrested. The State Security Forces (SSF) – mullahs' suppressive police – Chastity Unit patrolling the streets stopped a group of East Asians touring the city for not observing the strictly imposed dress code. Not having a translator, the group resisted the SSF agents and was severely beaten and arrested.

The Asian tourists then spent a few hours at the SSF custody before finally being released by their country's embassy.

This was not an isolated incident of the kind. In the past year there have been tourists harassed by the SSF enforcing the dress code in line with the suppressive "boosting public security plan."

The so-called "boosting public security plan" was first introduced in April 2007 to combat popular uprisings. Mass street arrests of hundreds of thousands of women and youth under the pretext of "mal-veiling" and cracking down on "thugs and hooligans" followed. In the same period, more than 300 prisoners were sent to gallows.