Its primary role is to enforce Sharia law as defined by Iranian legislation, with a particular focus on ensuring compliance with Islamic dress codes, such as mandating that women wear a hijab.

[9] According to Iran's Interior Minister, in a three-month period in 2014, 220 thousand women were taken to police stations, and signed statements in which they promised to wear a hijab.

[11][12][13] In 2015, in an eight-month period, police in Tehran stopped 40,000 women who were driving for not obeying Islamic rules of proper dress, and impounded the cars of most of them, generally for a week.

[27] In October 2023, a 17-year-old Iranian girl, Armita Geravand, fell into coma and was declared brain dead after an alleged encounter with morality police officers.

[33] The United Nations Human Rights Office said young Iranian women were violently slapped in the face, beaten with batons, and pushed into police vans.

[35][9][6][10] Under Article 683 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code, the penalty for a woman not wearing the hijab consists of imprisonment from 10 days to two months, and a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 Iranian rials (worth approx.

[35] On 27 December 2017, Brigadier General Hossein Rahimi, head of the Greater Tehran police, said: "According to the commander of the NAJA, those who do not observe Islamic values and have negligence in this area will no longer be taken to detention centers, a legal case will not be made for them, and we will not send them to court; rather, education classes to reform their behavior will be offered.

[42][43][44] On 26 September 2022, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that the Government of Canada would impose sanctions on the Guidance Patrol, its leadership, and the officials responsible for the death of Mahsa Amini and the crackdown on protesters.

[52] The police began issuing penalty notices via a mobile app for unveiled women in vehicles,[53] with fines automatically deducted from citizens' bank accounts.

[57] In August 2024, CCTV footage posted online showed hijab Nour program police severely beating two teenage girls on the street and taking them away.

[58] In August 2024, Minister of Islamic Culture and guidance ordered 1500 missionary personnel for hijab and chastity to be employed and trained by government called Mujahideen Fatimi.

[61] The Attorney General of Iran, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, stated in Qom on 3 December 2022 that the police Guidance Patrol is not under the supervision of the judiciary system and was in the process of being disbanded.

[68][69][70] Iranian state-run Arabic language channel Al Alam News Network denied any dissolution of the Guidance Patrol and added that "the maximum impression that can be taken" from Montazeri's comment is that the morality police and his branch of government, the judiciary, are unrelated.