With a presence in nearly every city and town across Iran, the paramilitary Basij volunteer corps has an ever-increasing influence on life in the Islamic Republic. Authorities created the Basij, which means mobilization in Persian, just after the country's 1979 Islamic Republic. It is part of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard. Photo: In this Thursday, August 22, 2013 photo, a female member of the Basij paramilitary militia aims a rifle as a trainer looks over her shoulder in Tehran, Iran. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

A view of the spectacular colour of clouds at sunset on January 17, 2005 in Beijing, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

A Vietnamese bride is seen pushing the groom on a scooter during a photo shoot for their wedding in An Bang Beach outside Hoi An in Vietnam December 11, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Arcelia Aguilar, a resident of “Hogar Jardin De Los Abuelitos”, receives a hug from her niece Maria Aguilar through “El muro de los Abrazos” (The Wall of Hugs) which is a wall made from plastic sheets to protect against the coronavirus, in San Salvador, El Salvador on September 1, 2020. (Photo by Jose Cabezas/Reuters)

A boy holds a machine gun at a military hardware exhibition during a swear-in ceremony for new recruits of the Russian military-patriotic club “Yunarmia” (Young army) in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea, October 27, 2018. (Photo by Pavel Rebrov/Reuters)

Israeli security forces arrest an Ultra Orthodox Jewish man as they close a synagogue in the Mea Shearim Ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood in Jerusalem, on March 30, 2020, amid efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP Photo)

Israeli police officers are about to push away a demonstrator during a protest against Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his residence in Jerusalem, Israel, early Sunday, August 9, 2020. (Photo by Ariel Schalit/AP Photo)

A girl carries bottles of water filled from a charity tank at a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) near Sanaa, Yemen on March 25, 2022. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)