Iranian youths dodge religious police with mobile app
An anonymous team of Iranian app developers have come up with a solution to help young Iranians avoid the country's notorious morality police called "Ershad" (guidance in Persian).
Ershad's mobile checkpoints which usually consist of a van, a few bearded men and one or two women in black chadors, are deployed in towns across Iran and appear with no notice. Ershad personnel have a very extensive list of powers ranging from issuing warnings and forcing those they accuse of violating Iran's Islamic code of conduct, to make a written statement pledging to never do so again, to fines or even prosecuting offenders.
The range of offences which Ershad patrols deal with are extensive. From wearing too much makeup in public to wearing too little Hijab or head cover for women, to what is called western influenced hair style and trendy clothing for men.
Just exactly what amounts to immoral behaviour, can be widely open to the interpretation of the Ershad agent on the spot. So buying your clothes and or makeup from authorised shops, won't necessarily keep you out of trouble. If an Ershad agent sees the combination unfit according the Sharia code of conduct, you can still end up being warned or even prosecuted.
Also, if you're caught walking or riding with your opposite sex friend, you still could end up being stopped, questioned and prosecuted by Ershad because that's another violation of Islamic code of conduct.
The new phone app which is called "Gershad" however, will alert users to checkpoints and help them to avoid them by choosing a different route. The data for the app is crowdsourced. It relies on users to point out the location of the Ershad vans on maps and when a sufficient number of users point out the same point, an alert will show up on the map for other users. When the number decreases, the alert will fade gradually from the map.
According to the designers of Gershad, in 2014 alone, around three million people were issued with official warnings, 18,000 were prosecuted and more than 200,000 were made to write formal pledges of repentance.
The app has received mixed response on the social media. "I don't really care if the application works or not but each download is a protest," said a Tweeter user. Another user has posted: “I do not agree with the Guidance Patrol, but you Gershad are officially disrupting police work!”
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