Source

Audio transcripted:

"Has the Islamic Republic disbanded the Morality Police?

At this point I have no choice but to believe that the Western media is consulting Bangladesh about Yemen. (Never seen so much laziness in my life).

Let's remember that two days ago the Islamic Republic contacted Russia to help on how to quell the uprisings, right? Not more than 48 hours later the Western media is reporting that the Morality Police has been disbanded.

Let's understand how the military framework in the Islamic Republic works. One of them is the IRGC, which is called the Sepah, which protects Velayat-e to Faghi which is the supreme leader who protects the State, Arthes, which is the national army.

And then you have the standard law enforcement which is called FARAJA. There is one branch of the law enforcemet which is the Morality Police, which are called Gasht-e Ershad.

Have they been disbanded? No. They have changed disguise. Instead of being patrol officers they have now become surveillance officers. So what's happening is that they are using surveillance technology with facial recognition to detect women who are wearing the hijab in the streets, and then they are arresting them by going to their houses and finding them - which is significantly worse than patrol.

All this under the guise of reform, to keep eyes off the Islamic Republic. And clearly it's working because look at what Western media is doing.

Did the Western media bother to explain to you that these are not forces that are in the streets every day? The forces in the streets are the IRGC, the Sepah, which are estimated to be around quarter of a million highly highly highly highly trained military personnel. And Basij. Basij is estimated that around 12 million - they are a paramilitary force, and they are so militant that they were doing this as militia before they were even an arm of the State. These are the people we're concerned about.

You want help understanding this? Ask yourself this question: is there still compulsory hijab in Iran? Ok? If the answer is yes then what does that mean? If it is law, mandatory, that women have to wear a hijab what does that mean?

It means that the law must be enforced. If there's no enforcement of the law then it's not a law, is it? This is simple high school seperation of powers, but if the law exists on the books that means that there is a branch of goverment that is responsible for enforcing that law.

Let's say there was no Morality Police, fine. Some other branch of FARAJA, the law enforcement, is going to be enforcing that law. But we know they haven't been disbanded, they're just switching to surveillance - which is even worse.

Next time... Do you need more money? Do you need more of a budget to consult? Is that what it is? Because we're happy to raise funds for you to confer with people who know, instead of just spreading misleading, out of context journalism. Please ask us. We're happy to provide."

Several news outlets like CBS (American), NYTimes (American), and BBC (Western Europe) have misleading headlines about the “morality police being abolished”. Some have mentioned their skepticism, but that isn’t enough information. A government that has had this level of theocratic power for decades won’t relinquish that power so easily. Elica Lebon broke this down so well. These empty promises about the morality police is just a diversion.

Over 400 people have been killed. Celebrities and even Iran’s soccer team have been arrested. A whole park was shut down because one woman wasn’t wearing a hijab.

We need to pay attention. Listen to the people from Iran first because various news outlets won’t validate their voices the way they need to.

I’m already missing HHN

The American Ballet Theatre is debuting its first same-sex pas de deux tonight, performed by Calvin Royal III and João Menegussi. A snippet of the performance has been circulating on TikTok (above), and it’s so beautiful, I was moved to tears. I tried to capture the tenderness of these thirty seconds in charcoal and pencil as best as I could. (Below.)