Ghalibaf’s Non-Police Remarks on Hijab Among Police Commanders
Ghalibaf’s Non-Police Remarks on Hijab Among Police Commanders
The remarks made yesterday by Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf at the 28th National Conference of the Commanders, Deputies, and Senior Managers of the Law Enforcement Force (FRAJA) are noteworthy from the perspective of his conciliatory rhetoric, especially considering that despite five years as Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and a record 12 years as Mayor of Tehran, he is still more recognized and familiar to the public in the role of a police commander.
Expressions and phrases such as ‘FRAJA should be the community’s police, not the police ruling over the community,’ ‘create social capital,’ and ‘have a culture-based and people-oriented view on security,’ ‘let’s ensure that those born in the 1980s and 1990s understand the culture-based perspective,’ ‘if you socialize power, it turns into authority,’ ‘when we talk about people, it includes various groups,’ and ‘social capital should be defined by respecting the rights and dignity of the people.’
Some may view it as rhetorical, promotional, or electoral, but we have moved past the presidential elections, and it is known that he gained nothing from the sudden elections last July and failed for the fourth time in nearly 20 years, in the years 2005, 2013, 2024, and once withdrew in 2017.
Although his presence in the first stage can be positively viewed in terms of the gap it created in the radical Principlists’ camp, and his support for the radicals’ candidate in the second round can be seen as contrary to his heartfelt, tactical, or emotional desire.
For re-election as Speaker of the Assembly in early June, there is no need to make such statements because representatives choose the speaker based on different criteria, primarily for managing sessions.
Let’s not forget that the Speaker of the Assembly, who said in a press conference last December that if the President does not promulgate the Hijab and Chastity Law, he would take action himself, and if it were to be promulgated and enforced, the police should have acted, made no mention of the matter in his remarks yesterday, which the Assembly and the police have been occupied with for months. On this basis, it might be said that he has now moderated that stance or has increasingly realized how it can undermine the police’s social capital and is dangerous.
In the words of former President Hassan Rouhani, police actions should be such that people applaud operations, and only criminals should stand against the police, not that citizens see the police as adversaries. Mr. Ghalibaf, who himself was a police commander for years and had created credibility, knows better that a police force without social capital is constrained from both sides, and for this reason, he emphasizes a culture-based perspective.
That the custodian of the country’s culture and education introduces himself as a soldier of the police commander, and the Speaker of the Assembly, who was previously a police commander and before that a commander of a section of the Revolutionary Guards, emphasizes a culture-based perspective, is indeed one of the paradoxes of our governance structure. Some of Ghalibaf’s remarks on May 17, 2025, are such that if you don’t know the speaker, it might take us back 27 or 28 years and make you think it’s Seyyed Mohammad Khatami saying that preserving citizens’ dignity is essential, and when an individual is arrested, respecting their rights is important.
Even if that individual is a criminal, it is these behaviors that turn power into authority, create social capital, and ultimately bring about public trust, and there is no greater capital than trust.
Or that security is the most important infrastructure of any country; if we want to talk about energy, water, transportation, or any other issue, none of them have meaning without sustainable security. Security, particularly internal security, is the main axis of building the country, especially when he has explicitly warned the police against using violence under the pretext of authority, and perhaps the secret of this transformation or frankness can be understood when he refers to those born in the 1980s and 1990s in part of his remarks.
From a broader perspective and at a higher level, yesterday’s remarks by the Speaker of the Assembly and the use of soft rhetoric and precise phrases might cautiously be seen as a sign of hidden maturity in the Islamic Republic, an expression recently used by Dr. Azad Armaki, of course in explaining negotiations with the United States and that the Islamic Republic has reached a hidden maturity.
In the emergence of this hidden maturity, the loss of many positions and trump cards, such as regional power and internal weakness, can also be considered effective.
If we want to refer again to the aforementioned sociologist Azad Armaki and consider the election of Pezeshkian as one of the consequences of the events of 2022, Ghalibaf’s remarks are also not unaffected by the events of 2022, especially where he refers to those born in the 1980s. It is hidden maturity that places negotiation with the United States, albeit currently indirect and through mediation, instead of the absolute denial of negotiation.
It is hidden maturity that gradually yields to freedom in choosing attire instead of enforcing a law that would fuel a wave of discontent in society, and ultimately they will seek another law that only sets penalties for nudity in the conventional sense or with specific political motives, not for the lifestyle of the children of this land.
It is also hidden maturity that emphasizes power reliant on social capital instead of violence and authority.
There is, of course, much to be said about the reasons for this hidden maturity. Some see it as a requirement for survival. In the words of the sociologist, until yesterday, we were still intoxicated by the overflowing waters from the dams, still using free gasoline, we hadn’t yet experienced pollution, our elites hadn’t yet left in this manner, and the conflicts hadn’t yet become so deep in the political system that they could pose a threat and cause incidents for governance. This set of factors has shaped a hidden and unannounced maturity that commands and helps, or at least creates an atmosphere to remain in society.
Because if we don’t remain, it is our last historical chance, and if we don’t act, we will face collapse.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is, of course, not a sociologist, but I think he wanted to reveal and announce this hidden maturity, or at least warn the police against using violence to be mindful of the society represented by the middle class, because confronting this class might this time incur an irreparable cost.
If we want to translate Mr. Ghalibaf’s remarks into a more straightforward expression, he is calling for the police to return to their explicit duties and to distinguish dangerous criminals from potentially errant citizens, and again, if we want to simplify it: don’t mess with the people.
In the remarks of the Speaker of the Assembly, where representatives aligned with it passed the Hijab and Chastity Law, and addressing commanders, some of whom were under his command during his tenure as police commander, we did not hear any reference to this issue, and it remained so silent that one could conclude it has been removed from the police’s agenda.