The law enforcement and judicial crackdown on “dog walking” which started last January in Tehran has now spread to many provinces including Yazd, Isfahan, Ilam, and Zanjan.

In the most recent case, the chief of law enforcement in Zanjan said although “dog walking in public is very rare” in the province, but since “issues such as dog walking are violations of citizens’ rights”, the police will stop it.

On Sunday, Zanjan’s chief of police, Asghar Shir Mohammadi told Mehr news agency that “dog walking is illegal in public.”

He stated that his police forces will “issue a warning first, then take a pledge of commitment and finally report the criminals to the judicial authorities.”

The Provincial attorney of Yazd also expressed his regret regarding “the spread of dog walking phenomenon in Yazd province.” He told Mehr News that in the past year there have been 25 cases of impounding vehicles for dog walking.

He confessed that even according to the current laws of the Islamic Republic dog walking is not a crime, but he claimed that “it causes other crimes including disruption of public order and inconvenience for the citizens, and it is an anti-cultural act.”

In many cases, the dogs were being carried in the cars and not actually being walked in the street.

There have also been reports of crackdown on dog walking from Birjand, Ilam, Isfahan, and other cities.

In rural Iran, dogs have been historically a part of the lives of villagers, nomadic tribes, farmers, and cattle owners, yet the Islamic Republic propaganda demonizes dogs and presents them as a sign of “western lifestyle”.

During the Friday prayer sermon in Isfahan, the supreme leader’s representative stated: “I thank the judiciary of Isfahan for issuing the order to fight social corruptions such as women’s cycling, dog walking, and improper hijab.”