“We will not allow anyone to jeopardize our national security.”
These were the words of Hossein Rahimi, commander of the Greater Tehran’s State Security Force (SSF) in speaking about women who drop their veil in public.
He added, “Women who take off their veils in the streets is against the laws of the Islamic Republic and Police will deal with such unlawfulness.”
Rahimi stressed that the SSF will be “tougher” on women who break the norms and added, “From now on, female police agents will deal with them and there will be a tougher treatment.” (State-run news agencies, February 27, 2018)
The State Security Force had previously announced, “According to paragraph 2 of Article 639, encouraging people to shun the veil is punishable by one to 10-year prison sentence. This sentence cannot be transformed to other forms of punishment.”