NCRI – Elaheh Azimfar, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the NCRI’s representative for international organizations, has told Britain’s Express that the closing down of clothes shops by the mullahs’ regime under the pretext of ‘not conforming to the Islamic standards’ is yet another ludicrous act of suppression against women in Iran. The following is the text of the article published on Saturday by The Express:
The Express
IRAN’S WESTERN CRACKDOWN: Morality police raid clothes shops in ban of un-Islamic clothing
SHOPS selling un-Islamic clothes have been raided and shut down as morality police step up brutal patrols in Iran.
By KATIE MANSFIELD
PUBLISHED: 10:45, Sat, Aug 6, 2016
The crackdown on Western outfits in the Islamic Republic has seen factories and shops being targeted – and comes after a leading cleric bizarrely accused the fashion of causing rivers to run dry.
At least 15 women’s clothes shops have been closed down by morality police in Hamedan in a renewed drive to wipe out improper clothing.
Four factories and shops have also been shut down in Isfahan, central Iran.
Islamic codes of behaviour and dress are strictly enforced in the country with women expected to cover their heads, wear trousers and a long sleeved coat or tunic that reaches to the mid-thigh or knee.
Manufacturers have been ordered to change their designs by officials and the black market for smuggled foreign clothing has experienced problems with demand.
The Tasnim News Agency, which is linked to the regime’s Revolutionary Guards Force, reported the crackdown.
Ebrahim Khatabakhsh, the head of the clothes manufacturers’ union in Isfahan, said: “Clothes production and distribution lines in Isfahan that do not conform to the standards of the Islamic Republic of Iran are being dealt with.
“Some of these production units have been ordered to adapt their clothing with Iranian-Islamic culture and standards. There are less smuggled foreign clothes being seen in Isfahan these days.”
Morality police are carrying out a series of raids and surprise inspections across the city.
Mr Khatabakhsh said: “Currently joint inspections are being carried out in the mornings and afternoons until all the areas have been inspected.”
The National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), which is campaigning for more human rights in the Islamic Republic has slammed the measures.
Elaheh Azimfar, from the NCRI, said: “Closing down the clothing production and distribution units by the clerical regime under the pretext of ‘not conforming to the Islamic standards’ is ludicrous and yet another act of suppression against women in Iran.
“It is important to realise that such acts are totally irrelevant to Islam and Islamic standards.
“The truth is that faced with an extremely discontented society, the regime sees no choice but to resort to further acts of suppression.
“Despite the intensification of the crackdown, there is growing opposition among the Iranian people, particularly women and youth.
“This explains why the regime is looking for new ways of restricting people, and women have always been the foremost victims of this fundamentalist regime.”
The crackdown is the latest in a spate of repressive measures in Iran.
A senior cleric claimed women dressed in Western clothes were causing rivers to run dry and ordered the police to take action.
Seyyed Youssef Tabatabi-nejad called on the morality police to stamp out un-Islamic behaviour and blamed social media for encouraging immodesty.
Women who fail to veil themselves correctly are reprimanded in public.
Last week a group of women were arrested for riding bicycles in the north-western city of Marivan, in Iran’s Kurdistan Province.
A number were arrested and others forced to sign written pledges not to cycle in public.
Eyewitnesses said security forces informed the women, who were planning a sports event, that under a new government directive women are banned from cycling in public.
