The state security forces launch a plan to deal with those who eat or drink in public during the Ramadan fasting month in Iran.
During the first days of Ramadan, the state-run media also publish numerous photos of police dealing with people eating, drinking, or smoking in public.
Every year, many citizens are convicted of “breaking the fast” in sharia courts.
In different years, Iran’s judiciary has sentenced individuals to “imprisonment from 10 days to 2 months or up to 74 lashes” simply for eating or drinking during the day and in a public place during Ramadan.
In the first days of this Ramadan fasting month in Iran, local media in Azerbaijan reported that in just one day, 94 people had been arrested for breaking the fast in a coffee shop in a Tabriz hotel. Earlier, news of the arrest of 40 people in Hamedan on the same charge had been published.
Iran’s Islamic Penal Code does not specifically prohibit the consumption of food or water during Ramadan.
It does, however, discuss “sinful” acts in Article 638: “Anyone in public places and roads who openly commits a harm (sinful) act, in addition to the punishment provided for the act, shall be sentenced to two months’ imprisonment or up to 74 lashes; and if they commit an act that is not punishable but violates public prudency, they shall only be sentenced to ten days to two months’ imprisonment or up to 74 lashes.”
On the eve of Ramadan, the Attorney General of Iran, in a letter to the commander of the police force, declared “breaking the fast” in public a “crime” and called for “legal confrontation” of “fasting people” even in private cars.
Mohammad Jafar Montazeri published a letter on April 2, one day before the beginning of Ramadan fasting month in Iran, to Hossein Ashtari, the commander of the police force, urging him to act against those who do not fast for any reason but drink and eat in public.
He said that the necessary legal action should be taken against the “obvious crime”.
Montazeri further emphasizes that the confrontation also affects the occupants of the car, because, according to him, “the car is not considered privacy” and those who eat or drink in their car would also be dealt with.
Meanwhile, the State Security Force’s Commander issued a statement on the same day warning citizens to “refrain from breaking the fasting in public.
Ban on baking bread and sealing restaurants
In addition to ban eating, drinking, and smoking in public and urban areas, restaurants and cafes are not allowed to serve before Iftar. They serve only cold food at best.
Recently, a member of the Mako city council in West Azerbaijan reported that one of the state institutions in Mako city had ordered that because Barbari bread is a “symbol of breakfast”, bakeries should be closed during morning shifts during Ramadan.
Following the implementation of this order, Barbari bakeries must bake bread from “3 pm to half an hour before iftar”, otherwise they will face “heavy fines” and would be sealed.
Ahmad Reza Ahmadian, the head of the public security police in Lorestan province, on April 5, announced the “sealing” of 14 restaurants and cafes in the province, in line with implementing the “special plan to monitor guilds during Ramadan.”
He also announced that he had visited 141 restaurants and cafes to “deal with the violation of the norm of fasting” and warned 124 union members for “not observing the rules of the holy month of Ramadan.” He added that 3 people were arrested on April 5, in Lorestan province on charges of “breaking the fast”.
Meanwhile, 2 restaurants in Bukan, West Azerbaijan Province, were sealed on the first day of Ramadan.
In this regard, the police commander of Bukan said: in the implementation of Article 28 of the Trade Union System Law, two dining units were sealed for not observing the disciplinary rules and activities during the days of Ramadan.
