First women-only police station opened in Iran
TEHRAN, Aug 23 (AFP) - Iran 's first women-only police station opened
Sunday in the holy city of Mashhad in the north east of the country, the
press reported.
The papers did not say how many women had been taken on.
The conservative-dominated Iranian parliament gave permission last September
for the police to recruit female officers, whose tasks will include supervising
driving exams, body searches of women, issuing passports to women, managing
women's prisons and dealing with crimes against morality.
They will also enforce the Islamic dress code.
The policewomen themselves will wear the long black chador with a band
in green, the colour of Islam.
The Iranian authorities have said that women-only stations would be
opened in at least five of the country's major cities, including the capital.
Mandana Hosseini, an adviser to the chief of the Iranian police, told
the press recently that the recruitment of women was an experiment, due
to last one year.
She named the provinces where they would serve as Fars in the south,
Khorasan in the north east, Qom in the centre and Tehran.
Last year a training centre for female officers was established in the
Tehran area, the first since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Women served as police officers under the shah, but since the revolution
they have been restricted to administrative tasks.
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