The Morality Police

The Gasht-e Ershad, the “Morality Police”

Wearing your headscarf too daringly in Iran can result in action by the morality police. Police forces tasked with enforcing strict state interpretations of Islamic morality exist in several countries: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Malaysia.

People's Choice 2022

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2.The
Morality Police

The simple act of a woman riding a bicycle - even while wearing a headscarf - is a controversial issue in Iran. 

Hard-liners, including influential clerics, have repeatedly spoken out against it.

Their focus is on ensuring observance of hijab - mandatory rules requiring women to cover their hair and bodies and discouraging cosmetics.

Room Concept

Women’s cycling in Iran has become a metaphor for the right to choose. The room recreates the oppression, threat and frustration brought by the Morality Police.

Enter by finding your own way through the criticism, abuse, and conflict, only to find that there is still something keeping the goal just out of reach.

See the faces of those who are affected alongside those fighting for change.

Entry to the room is a ramp leading up to a raised platform into an open space. Visitors have to find their way through all the hijab’s hanging down like theatre curtains. The hijab’s show printed quotes and opinions from protestors and hard-liners which came up in the research for and against the freedom of choice.

The space contains images and artefacts which tell the story of the situation in the countries where the Morality Police enforce the wearing of the hijab. Large-scale banners cover the walls behind the screens, the imposing messages surround the visitor.

The main feature inside the room is a giant sculpture of a bicycle. However, the bike can’t be seen by the visitors as it is draped in black fabric. Anyone who tries to lift or remove the material sets off alarms representing reactions towards the cyclists from the hard-liners.

A call to prayer plays to symbolise the duality of religion. Do you genuinely believe in faith and show honest loyalty to the church, or do you submit to it to avoid the oppression and segregation demonstrated by this room’s message?

Room Experience

Walkthrough: Describing the key points and visual features of the room

1. Visitors enter the room via a ramp through rows of hanging hijabs representing the struggle, hanging down enough that the visitors must push them out of the way.

2. As the visitors go up the ramp to the platform, they become tangled in the overpowering layers. More statements are draped on the walls inside the room.

3. On entering the room, visitors are faced with the 3.5m sculpture. The sculpture would be draped in black fabric and hidden from view (not visualised so you can see the structure). Covering the sculpture represents the conflict between religion and modern viewpoints.

4. To the left of the room are two digital screens. They show portraits of key figures in the resistance towards the religious laws as well as larger photographs of the women featured on the opposite wall.

5. The right-hand wall shows photographs of ordinary Muslim women. Two portraits are set in pairs, with and without their hijab, to compare and contrast. The wall’s surface is bare concrete; visitors can gain their own conclusions from that; does it represent the strength of the women or the power of the State?

6. Another screen at the back of the room plays scenes of oppression and resistance from various social media sources linked to specific hashtags. Continued use of those hashtags will keep the stream live.

Above: Detail inside inside the room. The figures next to the fabric-covered bicycle sculpture show a sense of scale. 

Above: The view of the right-hand wall showing the tear-off statements and portraits showing the women with and without their hijab. Visitors are encouraged to take a copy of everything to add to the exhibition scrapbooks.

“It looks great! Wish it would become an actual exhibition!” (So do we…)

Marina Jaber - Iraqi artist, activist and women's rights advocate. Project contributor.