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 man reacts as he receives 100 whippings by religious police as punishment for pre-marital sеx, outside a mosque in Jantho, Aceh province on June 5, 2020. A couple in Indonesia's conservative Aceh was publicly flogged 100 times each on June 5 after they were caught having pre-marital sеx, as one pleaded for an end to the painful punishment. Aceh is the only region in Muslim-majority Indonesia to impose Islamic law, which allows whipping for a range of charges. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)

People ride a minibus illuminated with green colorful lights at a street in preparation for celebrations of the birthday of the prophet Muhammad, in Sana'a, Yemen, 04 October 2022. Mawlid is annually celebrated by many Muslim countries on the 12th day of Rabi al-Awwal (the third month of the Islamic calendar), marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad, which is expected to be marked on 08 October 2022. In Yemen, it is celebrated by illuminating buildings and streets with green colorful lights and decorating vehicles in green. (Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA/EFE)

A woman reads a newspaper with a front-page report on the crash of the Iranian president's helicopter outside a kiosk in Tehran on May 20, 2024. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was declared dead on May 20 after rescue teams found his crashed helicopter in a fog-shrouded western mountain region, sparking mourning in the Islamic republic. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP Photo)

An Islamic religious leader and rebel supporter (R) chant to rally rebel fighters awaiting a rumored Libyan Army advance April 11, 2011 between the crucial towns of Ajdabiyah and Brega, Libya. Rebels continued to hold the strategic town of Ajdabiyah a day after NATO air power struck army troops loyal to Libyan ruler Moammar Gaddafi nearby, helping the rebels secure the city. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Displaced Sunni people, who fled the violence in the city of Ramadi, arrive at the outskirts of Baghdad, April 17, 2015. Iraqi security forces fought Islamic State militants at the gates of the western city of Ramadi on Friday, and local authorities warned it was in danger of falling unless reinforcements arrived soon. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Iranian Kurdish female members of the Freedom Party of Kurdistan (PAK) hold a position on November 6, 2016 in an area near the town of Bashiqa, some 25 kilometres north east of Mosul, during an operation against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists to retake the main hub city. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP Photo)

A boy poses for a photo as he plays with a homemade toy gun in Qayara, south of Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, November 22, 2016. For months, residents of the Iraqi town of Qayara have lived in the darkness from a cloud of toxic fumes released by oil fields lit by retreating Islamic State fighters. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)