This location-based app helps young Iranians avoid ‘morality police’

[المشرف العام]

Many young Iranians are pretty liberated guys. They like to party and wear fancy clothes but they happened to live in a country where it’s prohibited. There is special police force dedicated to*ensuring Iranians follow strict rules on clothing and conduct, called the Gasht-e-Ershad (or Guidance Patrol, commonly known as the “morality police”).*Part of their activities include setting up checkpoints around cities and randomly inspecting vehicles driving by.

Now there is a way to avoid the Ershad controls. An anonymous team of Iranian developers have come up with a crowdsource app that allow users marking risky spots on the city map*to help others*avoid it. Something like Waze but for a much different purpose.

The*Gershad*app is pretty simple and easy to use. Users can mark where*they encounter the “morality police”. The data is added to a database and visualised*on a map. The more reports in one place, the bolder the warning on the map.*When the number decreases, the alert will fade gradually from the map. Simple as it is.

A screenshot. Couple of minutes ago.#Gershad#گرشاد pic.twitter.com/cAzIlQFzW0

— Nima Akbarpour (@nima) February 9, 2016

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The statement on the Google Play store explains the motives behind the app:

“Why do we have to be humiliated for our most obvious right which is the right to wear what we want? Social media networks and websites are full of footage and photos of innocent women who have been beaten up and dragged on the ground by the Ershad patrol agents.

Police need to provide security for the citizens not to turn into a factor for fear. A while ago, angry with such unreasonable oppressions, we looked for a solution to find a practical way to resist the volume of injustices peacefully with low risk level, to restore part of our freedom.”

The app has been released yesterday and it already had 432 users giving it 5-star rating. Interesting how we can use similar location-based app concepts for so much different purpose.

Here is the website of the project.

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