Mullah calls for crackdown on Iran’s women over dress code

NCRI - A high-ranking mullah in Iran's regime has called for stronger measures to further restrict women in Iran in choosing their type of clothing, the Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has reported on its website.

Mullah Naser Makarem Shirazi blamed the government for failing to implement the mandatory dress code and called for formation of a ministry in this regard.

He said: “Patrols promoting virtue and prohibiting vice must be established in society. There should be no surprise if we establish a ministry for this purpose.” (State-run Howza news website, March 13, 2016)

He is the second so-called religious authority within the regime who has called for the formation of such a ministry. The 89-year-old Makarem Shirazi had previously opposed women’s presence in stadiums and the lifting of gender segregation in universities.

A law entitled “Supporting those promoting virtue and prohibiting vice” was adopted in October 2013 and led to a wave of acid attacks against women under the pretext of mal veiling.

Mullah Naser Makarem Shirazi

In September 2010 Makarem Shirazi was quoted by the Iranian regime’s state news agency IRNA as saying, "The Holocaust is nothing but superstition, but Zionists say that people of the world should be forced to accept this."

"Americans and Westerners are affected by newly appeared superstitions such as the Holocaust," he said on September 4, 2010, according to the state-run ISNA news agency.

"The truth about the Holocaust is not clear, and when the researchers want to examine whether it is true or the Jews have created it to pose as victims, they jail the researchers," he added.