Guidance Patrol

The Guidance Patrol (Persian: گشت ارشاد, romanized: gašt-e eršâd) or morality police is an Islamic religious police force and vice squad in the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Its primary role is to enforce Sharia law as defined by Iranian legislation, with a particular focus on ensuring compliance with Islamic dress codes, such as mandating that women wear a hijab. Established in 2005 as the successor to the Islamic Revolution Committees, the Guidance Patrol reports directly to the Supreme Leader.
Since the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution, Iranian law has required all women in the country to wear a hijab that covers the head and neck and conceals the hair.
In the 1980s, the Islamic Revolution Committees functioned as Islamic religious police in Iran. In 2005, they were succeeded by the Guidance Patrol which now serves as the official religious police and reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran.
On Iranian Mother's Day in 2013, the Guidance Patrol distributed flowers to women wearing the chador, the preferred style of hijab.
In 2014, Iran's Interior Minister reported that approximately 220,000 women were taken to police stations and signed statements promising to comply with hijab requirements for a period of three months. An additional 19,000 women received hair-covering notices, and 9,000 were detained for violations. That same year, the police reportedly issued warnings and guidance to 3.6 million Iranians for failing to observe the Islamic dress code.
In 2015, during an eight-month period, police in Tehran stopped 40,000 individuals for dress code violations while driving; most of their vehicles were impounded, typically for a week.
In 2016, Tehran deployed 7,000 undercover Guidance Patrol officers to identify and report violations of the dress code.
A major controversy concerning the Guidance Patrol was its arrest and alleged killing of Mahsa Amini. On 13 September 2022, the Guidance Patrol arrested Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly, in a manner that allowed some of her hair to be visible under her hijab. She died in custody three days later. The official cause of death was heart failure, but bruises on her legs and face suggested to many that she had been beaten, despite police denials. Multiple medical officials and detainees who witnessed her arrest claim that Guidance Patrol officials tortured her in the back of a van before arriving at the station. Amini’s death under suspicious circumstances inspired a wave of protests in Iran, including at Tehran University and Kasra Hospital, which was where she died, calling for the end of the compulsory hijab law and greater rights for women in Iran.
Amini's death sparked major protests, "unlike any the country had seen before", the "biggest challenge" to the government, with an unknown organization starting riots around the country, leaving 10,000s arrested and over 500 killed. (Including many Guidance Patrol officers killed and tortured) During the protests against the hijab requirements and the Iranian government in general in late 2022, enforcement of compulsory hijab was relaxed, and there was even an erroneous report that it would be disbanded.
The morality police in Iran are responsible for ensuring compliance with the country's compulsory dress code laws. As of September 2023, a morality crackdown is in process.
In mid-July 2023, after months of a large fraction of younger Iranian women ignoring compulsory hijab, and just before the start of the holy month of Muharram, a spokesman for Iranian law enforcement formally announced that the morality police would return to the streets. (On 15 July, the day of their returned to the streets, widespread internet outages were observed).
In October 2023, a 17-year-old Iranian girl, Armita Geravand, fell into coma and was declared brain dead after an alleged encounter with morality police officers. The incident sparked outrage and criticism from human rights groups and social media users, who compared it to the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. Iran denied that Geravand was harmed by the officers and said her condition was due to a pre-existing illness.
Guidance patrols usually consist of a van with a male crew accompanied by chador-clad women who stand at busy public places (e.g., shopping centers, squares, and subway stations), (sometimes assisted by Basij paramilitary), to arrest women not wearing hijabs or not wearing them in accordance with government standards. According to Amnesty International, "girls as young as seven years old" are forced to wear the hijab. The United Nations Human Rights Office said young Iranian women were violently slapped in the face, beaten with batons, and pushed into police vans. The women are driven to a correctional facility or police station, lectured on how to dress, have their photos taken by the police and personal information recorded, are required to destroy any "indecent" clothing with scissors, and generally released to relatives the same day, though many are detained. Under Article 683 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code, the penalty for a woman not wearing the hijab consists of imprisonment from 10 days to two months, and a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 Iranian rials (worth approx. $1.20 to $11.90 USD in 2024). Violators may also be lashed up to 74 times.
The Guidance Patrol also monitors immodest attire by men, "Western-style" haircuts worn by men, male-female fraternization, violations of restrictions on the wearing of makeup, the wearing of bright colours, tight clothing, torn jeans, and short trousers, and of trans women. Violations include too much hair showing from under the headscarf, and an unmarried couple taking a walk together. Trans women have been harassed for lack of gender conformity. When an Iranian trans woman was beaten in April 2018, police refused to help her.
Members of the public may turn one another in for perceived violations of the dress code, and traffic cameras are also used to identify violators of the dress code. Iran's CCTV camera systems, including those from cafes, universities, and kindergartens, transmit their footage to the police.
On 27 December 2017, Brigadier General Hossein Rahimi, head of the Greater Tehran police, said: "According to the commander of the NAJA, those who do not observe Islamic values and have negligence in this area will no longer be taken to detention centers, a legal case will not be made for them, and we will not send them to court; rather, education classes to reform their behavior will be offered."
On 22 September 2022, during the Mahsa Amini protests, the United States Department of the Treasury announced sanctions against the Guidance Patrol as well as seven senior leaders of Iran's various security organizations, "for violence against protestors and the death of Mahsa Amini". These include Mohammad Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi, chief of Iran's Morality Police, Haj Ahmad Mirzaei, head of the Tehran division of the Morality Police, and other Iranian security officials. The sanctions involve blocking any properties or interests in property within the jurisdiction of the U.S., and reporting them to the U.S. Treasury. Penalties would be imposed on any parties that facilitate transactions or provide services to sanctioned entities.
On 26 September 2022, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that the Government of Canada would impose sanctions on the Guidance Patrol, its leadership, and the officials responsible for the death of Mahsa Amini and the crackdown on protesters.
In April 2024, two years after the beginning of the Women, Life, Freedom movement, the Iranian government ordered more violent morality patrols. A partially implemented secret and classified chastity program law aims to prevent women who do not wear the hijab from leaving the country. VOA reported that before the 2024 Islamic Consultative Assembly elections, authorities had encouraged non-hijab-wearing individuals to vote, but later adopted a "factory reset" approach after the elections. The police began issuing penalty notices via a mobile app for unveiled women in vehicles, with fines automatically deducted from citizens' bank accounts. Additionally, the government has routinely closed public cafes and restaurants.
In June, the police deployed 7,000 troops to the beaches to enforce the hijab.
In August 2024, CCTV footage posted online showed hijab Nour program police severely beating two teenage girls on the street and taking them away.
In August 2024, Minister of Islamic Culture and guidance ordered 1,500 missionary personnel for hijab and chastity to be employed and trained by government called Mujahideen Fatimi.
Some officials say that in their view the Guidance Patrol is an Islamic religious police, fulfilling the Islamic obligation to Enjoining good and forbidding wrong, and is desired by the people. Others oppose the Guidance Patrol's existence on the grounds that the authorities should respect citizens' freedom and dignity, and enforce Iranian law but not enforce Islam. The Guidance Patrol has been called un-Islamic by some, mostly because performing the requisites is haram (forbidden) when it leads to sedition. Some argue the notion should be a mutual obligation, allowing people to instruct government officials, but in practise it is strictly limited to one side.
The Attorney General of Iran, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, stated in Qom on 3 December 2022 that the police Guidance Patrol is not under the supervision of the judiciary system and was in the process of being disbanded. He also said that the hijab law is under review. However, as of 5 December the Iranian government had not made any official confirmation regarding the disbanding of the guidance patrol, and the Iranian state media denied its dissolution. It was reported that enforcement of the mandatory hijab and the guidance patrol had intensified, particularly in religious cities. In response, a three-day general strike was called by protestors, with shopkeepers closing their businesses; several experts and protestors alleged that the news of the dissolution had been announced by the Iranian government to overshadow coverage of the strike. Iranian state-run Arabic language channel Al Alam News Network denied any dissolution of the Guidance Patrol and added that "the maximum impression that can be taken" from Montazeri's comment is that the morality police and his branch of government, the judiciary, are unrelated. On 16 July 2023, the Iranian law enforcement force announced that patrols by the Morality Police would be relaunched.
A report issued by the Independent Fact-Checking Mission to Iran noted that the Morality Police increasingly adopted new technologies to enforce its code. The mobile app "Nazer" allows vetted members of the public to report on uncovered women in vehicles and drones are increasingly used to identify uncovered women. Facial recognition software was installed at Tehran's Amirkabir University of Technology to find women not wearing the hijab.
Media related to Guidance Patrol at Wikimedia Commons