179.2K
Downloads
404
Episodes
Dive deeper into the week’s biggest stories from the Middle East and around the world with The National’s foreign desk. Nuances are often missed in day-to-day headlines. We go Beyond the Headlines by bringing together the voices of experts and those living the news to provide a clearer picture of the region’s shifting political and social landscape.
Episodes
Friday Dec 09, 2022
Friday Dec 09, 2022
A group of men in green uniforms and women in loose black chador head scarfs roaming the streets in a van is a familiar sight in Iran. This is a patrol by Iran’s so-called morality police
Officially called the Guidance Patrol, officers have the power to arrest anyone deemed to be flouting the country’s strict rules on how men and women should dress and act in public.
While officially they police everyone - men wearing shorts or showing visible tattoos can fall foul of officers - it is women who are overwhelmingly scrutinised.
On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young looks at Iran’s religious rules and the force that upholds them.