‘They have no way to discriminate’: Iran rounds up hundreds for execution as ‘bad hijab’ is enough to be labeled a spy

Following the recent short but intense conflict with Israel, Iranian authorities have launched a widespread security crackdown. This has resulted in hundreds of arrests and several executions. This large-scale operation is meant to reestablish control after the conflict revealed how deeply Israeli intelligence had infiltrated Iran.

In the week after the ceasefire, security forces set up checkpoints in Tehran and other major cities, urging citizens to report anything suspicious. At the same time, Iran’s parliament introduced an emergency bill proposing harsher punishments for espionage, including the death penalty. The judiciary also announced plans to create special courts to speed up trials for those accused of being “traitors and mercenaries,” according to The Washington Post.

A spokesperson for the judiciary, Asghar Jahangir, said more details about the arrests and specific charges would be released soon, only stating that “a number of people suspected of spying for the Zionist regime have been identified and cases filed against them.” However, local media and human rights groups report that over 700 people were arrested across five provinces during the 12-day conflict.

Iran is making mass arrests, hoping to catch spies

The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran has been cofirming the numbers given, adding that hundreds more were arrested in Tehran alone. Most alarmingly, at least six people have reportedly been executed for spying for Israel, with three of those executions taking place in Oroumieh, western Iran, on June 25.

The arrests have also raised fears inside Iran of a coming wave of repression. The government seems to have two goals: to break up alleged spy networks and to silence any dissent among the general public.

Afshon Ostovar, an Iran expert and professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in California said, “If they were reflective, they’d realize that the reason why they were so bad picking up the Israelis is because they’re focused on every single person in the crowd… They have no way to discriminate who’s an actual spy and who’s not, because everybody with a bad hijab or tweeting the wrong thing is seen as equal to an actual foreign operative.”

Since the Islamic Republic was established in 1979, Iran has had a long history of repression, with thousands reportedly beaten, arrested, tortured, or executed. More recently, the government cracked down on nationwide protests that began in September 2022 after a woman died in the custody of Iran’s morality police.

Before the recent conflict with Israel, there were signs of loosening social restrictions in some areas, such as relaxed enforcement of strict dress codes for women. At the same time, however, the government increased its monitoring of online activity. Executions in Iranian prisons also rose sharply, with the United Nations reporting at least 975 executions last year, the highest number in nearly a decade.

For many Iranians, like a 26-year-old engineer from Tehran, the Israeli strikes immediately sparked fears of a harsher crackdown. He said, “As long as this government exists, I am concerned about the chances of increased repression, but during times when there’s an ‘external threat,’ the repression gets much worse as they have more excuse to see us as enemies.”

This fear has led some people to change their behavior in public, such as wearing more subdued clothing. New checkpoints in Tehran, where plainclothes officers stop and question drivers, have added to the tense atmosphere in the sprawling capital. One activist from Tehran said they knew of at least four fellow activists detained during the conflict and worried that more arrests were coming.