Iranian police have established a vast network of thousands of undercover officers tasked with reporting on “moral violations “in the Islamic Republic’s capital, Tehran’s police chief said on Monday.
Some 7,000 agents have been deployed to Tehran’s streets to tackle sub-standard veiling by women as well as crimes such as anti-social behavior, General Hossein Sajedinia told Mizan Online, the official news agency of the country’s judiciary.
He said that the “undercover patrols will confront implicit transgressions in the city,” AFP news agency reported.
“Confronting bad hijab and removal of veils inside cars, driving recklessly, parading in the streets, harassing women and stopping noise pollution are the priorities” for the squad, he added.
The agents will not directly confront the transgressors but would inform police of the moral violations by sending license plate numbers by text message and the police would then act.
Covering the head with a hijab is mandatory for women by the  regime  and the Iranian leadership has attempted since the 1979 revolution to impose conservative ideals on the country’s population.
According to the reports, Iranians both within and outside the country took to social media to condemn the squad as more state interference. One user wrote that “Big Brother is watching you!” while another suggested that “too much security can bring insecurity.”
Almost 60 percent of the country’s population of 80 million is under the age of 30.

Source: Japan Times, April 19