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Iran Cracking Down on Protests, Ramping Up "Morality Police"
(UPI) Struan Stevenson - Acknowledging the serious "threat" posed by recent demonstrations and mass protests involving teachers, truck drivers, street vendors and trade unionists, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told security officials this week that further repressive measures throughout the country were now a "high priority." 7,000 additional plain-clothes "morality police" have been deployed in Tehran alone to clamp down on women accused of "bad hijab" and other breaches of morality. Meanwhile, demonstrations have continued in central Tehran and other cities denouncing the detention of trade union leaders and political prisoners and demanding job security and labor rights. There are daily complaints and protests about the vast level of theft and embezzlement involving high-ranking government officials. Since President Hassan Rouhani took office in 2013, at least 2,300 men and 66 women have been executed in Iran, many of them hanged in public. The writer, a retired Conservative MEP representing Scotland, is president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association.