The commander of Iran’s police force, Hossein Ashtari, announced that owners of 300 thousand vehicles have been summoned by police text message system for “no hijab in the vehicle” and said out of this number, 150 thousand have visited a police station to sign pledges.

“We don’t care about improper or loose hijab, because everyone has their own interpretation, but the vehicle is not a private space and if somebody is not wearing hijab in the vehicle, we will react,” said Ashtari in a speech on Thursday.

He explained that the initiative has three strikes: “If someone receives the third strike, we will send them to court and impound the car. We have not had a third strike yet, which means the initiative has been effective.”

“Some people have criticized this initiative, but I can prove that anyone who criticizes it in any way or opposes it, has some issues somewhere or one of their relatives or themselves are in that group and have received the text message,” claimed the chief of Iran’s police.

Ashtari emphasized: “What we do is executing the law, a law that is in accordance with the Sharia law.” He continued: “After vehicles, we will move to businesses in the second phase. Vehicles and business are doable, but the sidewalks are the final phase and very difficult.”

He also expressed his strong support for the police forces who physically assault women and the youth in the streets for “improper hijab” and said: “They wanted to punish that policeman who attacked those girls without hijab in the park. Even some of the insiders said there must be some reprimand. But when I found out that our agent was doing his job, I said there shouldn’t be a punishment, and we commended that agent.”