“A while ago, we received a tipoff about a mixed-gender party at a garden in the vicinity of Islamshahr, in the west of the Tehran province,” Mohsen Khancherli, a police commander, told Iran’s Tasnim news on Monday.
“[Regime forces were able] to arrest tens of boys and girls during a joint operation with one of the relevant departments,” he added.
Khancherli went on to say that efforts by the morality police in Iran to curb what they claim is immoral behaviour are being stepped up with more public areas and gardens being monitored by these authorities.
“In this garden, which was situated next to an unlicensed studio for recording underground music, nearly 150 boys and girls had gathered in a mixed-gender party under the pretext of a birthday celebration,” he explained.
Morality police in Iran strictly police the mandatory wearing of the hijab by Iranian women in public, as well as the regime’s ban on alcohol. Partygoers found in possession of alcohol can be sentenced to lashings or prison sentences.
Monday’s arrests come as the regime appears to be cracking down harder on activities they deem to be harmful to society and un-Islamic.
On Sunday, Iran’s Basij militia, which rigorously enforces the morality laws, held a ceremony where they destroyed some 100,000 satellite dishes which they had confiscated from people. It is illegal to own a satellite dish in Iran, however despite this law most Iranians do.
General Mohammad Reza Naghi justified the wholesale destruction of tens of thousands of dishes on Sunday by claiming that “satellite channels … deviate the society’s morality and culture.”
“What these televisions really achieve is increased divorce, addiction and insecurity in society,” he added.
In April, Tehran’s chief of police announced that they were recruiting 7,000 plainclothes police to combat “immorality” in the city.
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