Do they have any different police powers in Iran specifically? What is the court/prosecution system involved? Do the accused get a defence representative?
Note: I am not looking for any personal opinions on the matter. Certainly not personal opinion on police or Middle Eastern cultures or religion. I believe I can form those opinions myself. I would like to have a thorough understanding on what is happening there and who is involved.
In: 43
What I’m about to say may be outdated, based on a guy I worked with who got 90 lashes from drinking in Iran like 15ish years ago.
You get a sentencing, basically they decide your punishment if you have an argument/reason what they are doing is not shariah. You don’t always get to argue and it’s based on council.
You meet with a coucil, in my coworkers case a scholar (not an imam…. like a church elder but in Islam) and you don’t always get to argue. You have to say if you repent or not, praying can make things go smoother.
He also spent time in jail so that is part that can be longer or shorter if you cooperate, prolly gonna get the lash if you aren’t well connected.
From what I understand the morality police consult with religious guidelines and turn you over to the court/police. There seems to be some overlap of duties/facilities in some areas from what another dude told me.
The latter mentioned one wouldn’t say much more about it but he lived in a more rural part of the country. I think he mentioned a forested area, I can’t remember if he said the north-east or I’m thinking of where the other guy suggested to visit.
Imagine a bunch of people not hired by a police department that go around acting as though they have the same authority. They are not held accountable. And they can accuse you of being immoral for any reason they feel – talking to another human being, wearing an article of clothing they disagree with, or even not wearing what they deem to be enough clothes to cover yourself.
So basically a bunch of self-empowered wanna-be cops going around policing people for bullshit stuff they make up to enforce what they view as the morals of their religion. Except they aren’t arrested for impersonating an officer as they would be in most other countries. Instead, they have the blessing of the supreme authority in the country – the Ayatollah. They’re basically the German equivalent of the Schutzstaffel (the SS), except slightly less extreme in that they aren’t rounding people up for mass executions. Yet.
I don’t have insight into the morality police that have specifically been in the news lately. However a helpful contextual piece of info is that culturally/historically, dating back to the early Persian empire, the law system in Iran has had two separate but equally important judiciaries. The legal court and the religious court. They have overlapping jurisdictions and it’s not as clear cut of a system from a westerners perspective.
How did this get past the checks for subjective opinions?!
I’m living in Iran. Morality police is not different from police. It’s just one of its departments (like anti-narcotics department). So, there are some polices patrolling in the city and they will arrest you if you don’t fit in their imagination of morality/Sharia/etc.
They’ll take you to the police department, search your phone for other possible immorality things, they beat you, and then call your family to come and take you back home.
So this immoralities could be the form of your clothes, hanging out with a friend of different gender, etc.
Also, there are security cameras that will take pictures of the passengers of a car who are not complying with hijab rules. Then your car will be impounded.
And no, you can’t defend yourself in a court or something.
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