On July 17^th, 2023 the Iranian Guidance Patrol, otherwise known as the morality police, announced that it will resume patrolling the streets in search for women who don’t adhere to the religious laws that demand covering one’s head and wearing loose clothing. This problematic decision comes ten months after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, was beaten to death by the Patrol’s officers for allegedly wearing her hijab ‘improperly’ when visiting Tehran. Her murder sparked violent protests which are raging to this day all across Iran and which have resulted in further deaths of hundreds of protesters by the hands of armed police officers and soldiers. The continuation of morality police patrols now threatens to destabilise the situation even further.

There is little doubt on both sides of the confict, in those last ten months, the issue protested has become much bigger than just dress codes. “The hijab laws have become synonymous with the politics of the Islamic Republic.” Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, a scholar of Iranian and Middle Eastern history at the University of Pennsylvania, told TIME magazine. “It is not easy for the Islamic Republic to back away from one of its major policies that serves as a symbol of its power.” The government’s violent reaction to the protests raises worries among reformists that, going forward, purely peaceful means might prove insufficient in enacting change. Ehsan Mansouri, an Iranian activist, has summarised that view in a tweet: “We were the last generation who dreamed of reforming the situation peacefully, non-violently, and for the benefit for all.”

The courage and sacrifice of those who were and still are ready to face the Islamic Republic’s persecution is of course deserving of the utmost respect and commendation. However, with the further escalation of means of repression it might prove insufficient on its own to enact reform. Because of this, the decision of how to respond to the morality police’s return will be a crucial one. Although the fight against the regime should by no means be stopped or slowed down, it is the lives of Iranian citizens which should be a priority. As the government has shown that it cannot be trusted to protect its own people, it will tragically fall to the protesters to try to limit casualties, especially those among minors. The moment victory becomes more important than lives of those fighting for it, the battle is lost.

The protests in the wake of Mahsa Amini’s murder have so far resulted in more than 500 people, including at least 70 children, being killed and another 19 000 being arrested. The government has made little effort to peacefully resolve the tensions. The disbandment of the morality police last December has been by many activists seen as a diversion tactic, meant only to temporarily pacify the protesters without instilling real change. Now, this view seems to have been proven justified, both by the morality police’s return as well as other actions of the Iranian regime, such as, most importantly perhaps, the April launch of a government surveillance program aimed to use security cameras to find and prosecute women who appear in public dressed ‘improperly’. Even so, conservative politicians in the Iranian government still find the status quo to be insufficiently rigorous and are currently pushing for a ‘Support for the Culture of Hijab and Chastity’ bill that would further increase penalties for dress code violations.

Though the return of Guidance Patrol is only one in a series of many reprehensible actions that the Islamic Republic has aimed at women, it stands out as an exceptional example of just how little accountability non-democratic theocratic governments, such as the one in Iran, have for their actions. Just as the dissolution of the morality police in December last year has proven temporary, so might in the future other acts of ‘appeasements’ offered to the human rights activists and organizations. No real, permanent change can be achieved until women, along with other endangered groups, are properly represented in policy-making bodies.