Iran’s Consultative Assembly or Majlis passed a law banning dog walking in public as well as driving with a dog in the car earlier this year. Since then, the Islamic nation has been showing no mercy to dogs or animal love, allowing morality police to treat dog owners as criminals.
In a video that went viral on social media, an elderly woman is seen walking her dog when a man, presumably morality police, threatens to arrest her and take her dog away for walking him at the park.
It’s not just women whose lives is controlled in Iran. Dogs suffer as well. This man is insisting that bringing a dog to a park is not proper and threatens the grandma repeatedly that if she does it again he would put the dog in a bag & take it away. #MyCameraIsMyWeapon pic.twitter.com/lwwJqAmWF9
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) November 13, 2019
Dogs are widely seen as dirty by Iran’s conservative clergy, and owning dogs has been a contentious issue ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pet dogs are also regarded as an emulation of western behavior.
I love the dog barking at this uncouth, intolerant, bully of a man.
— Tunku Varadarajan (@tunkuv) November 13, 2019
In spite of the crackdown, pets, especially dogs, are becoming ever more popular among young Iranians.
That woman needs a different dog.
— O_o (@ooodooles) November 13, 2019
Might I suggest one, two or three.
Guaranteed not to take shit from nobody. pic.twitter.com/RxvPAT1181
Five years ago, Iran passed a law to protect “morality vigilantes,” religious figures and members of the public who report and reprimand others for violating Islamic codes of behavior.
The problem is that Muslims believe that dogs are impure and must be away from humans and humans’ lives. But when they are asked what the exact meaning of impurity is, and what’s wrong with it? they just respond that we do not know ourselves and we just know our Prophet said so.
— بوبی (@c5GbNjtYsfYcHMr) November 13, 2019
"It is forbidden to drive dogs around in cars and, if this is observed, serious police action will be taken against the car-owners in question," Tehran Police Chief Hossein Rahimi announced in January.
Imagine what he would have done is the lady hasn't worn a headscarf along with bringing the dog?? He would probably kill and bag her, instead.. This oppression has gone too far... And yet there are idiots who say modern feminism has gone too far..
— The Primordial Poison (@DJrevathi) November 13, 2019
Nonetheless, those who are often getting in trouble for walking dogs are most often women, whose behavior and adherence to dress codes are heavily monitored by the Islamic Republic’s authorities.
Even animals are not safe from Islamic republic government in Iran, shame on them
— Rosita& Selena (@NourizareRosita) November 13, 2019