Ali Ansari

Inside the Iranian regime’s protest panic

(Photo: Getty)

During a press conference in Tehran on 3 December, Iran’s Attorney General, Mohammad Javad Montazeri was asked by a journalist what had happened to the country’s morality police, which have been strangely absent from Iran’s streets. Clearly irritated by the question, Montazeri snapped that the morality police had nothing to do with the judiciary and they had been ‘abolished’ by the same body that had installed them. The word he used could also be translated as ‘suspended’ but the implication that the force had been in some way removed was seized upon by international journalists that something was beginning to give in the Islamic Republic. But as is often the case with the Islamic Republic, it is always worth pausing and reading the small print before rushing to judgement. 

Indecision clearly afflicts the regime which finds itself bewildered by the attitudes of a new generation it simply does not understand

Soon after the authorities in Iran denied that the morality police had been removed and argued that Montazeri had been ‘misinterpreted’. They did suggest, however, that the force’s methods of enforcement might need to be reviewed – and alluded to an earlier suggestion that facial-recognition software (purchased from China) could be used instead to identify culprits. But what was missed in the rush to draw conclusions was what Montazeri’s comments revealed about the nature of the government response to the ongoing crisis.  

The structure of government in Iran is notoriously chaotic with multiple institutions enjoying overlapping responsibilities. This reflects not only the division between the standard governmental institutions (such as ministries) and their revolutionary counterparts, but also organisations within those bodies as well. Supporters of the Islamic Republic regularly try to turn this bureaucratic vice into a virtue by suggesting that it is indicative of the plurality of the system. The reality is much more mundane. The sheer number of internal factions results in indecision and leads to rigorous competition for the attention of the Supreme Leader, the only person capable of cutting this Gordian knot.

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