An IRGC commander in the northern province of Gilan announced the launch of a 2,000 strong Basij group to counter what the regime calls “improper hijab”.

Mohammad Abdollahpour, the commander of the Gilan Quds Force, announced on June 4 that a new “chapter of promoting virtue and prohibiting vice” had started in the northern province. Abdollahpour said that the 2,000 Basij groups would give verbal notices and would also take action against what they deemed improper in the society, though he did not elaborate.

“22,000 Basij forces in Gilan have weekly night patrols”, he added.

It would seem that this new wave of crackdown against civil liberties is linked to the “Razavion” patrols announced by Iran’s Police Chief in early May.

“An agreement has been reached between the police and the Basij Organization in the context of further engagement and cooperation on the launch of the Razavion Patrol,” Hossein Ashtari told IRNA News Agency on May 8.

Iran has deemed “improper hijab” a security threat since the clerics took power 40 years ago. Senior officials never fail to mention how important the veil is in their speeches as it is the most obvious way the regime uses to suppress women.

Most recently, the Gilan IRGC commander said that forgetting “to promote virtue and prohibiting vice” was equal to the “collapse of the revolution”.

The names of the hijab patrols or morality police have changed over the 40 years of the clerical rule in Iran; From the “Sarallah Patrols” during the 80’s to the “Guidance Patrols” that were launched in 2005.

The “Ansare Hezbollah” was also launched by the IRGC in 2013 to deal with so-called “improper veiling”.