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)

In this March 20, 2016 photo, Maj. Mohammed Hussein, an officer with Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces, shows a photo of a slain Islamic State group militant still wearing in a suicide vest, taken during fighting that freed the city of Ramadi from IS control earlier this year. As they fled, the militants destroyed some buildings and booby-trapped others with explosives, leaving behind an empty prize for government forces retaking the city. (Photo by Maya Alleruzzo/AP Photo)

A young girl sits on a mat, as worshippers arrive to pray to mark the Muslim Eid-al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifices) without observationg precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, in Kara, Ogun State in southwest Nigeria, on July 31, 2020. Nigerian Muslim faithfuls joined their counterparts across the world to celebrate Eid-El-Adha, Islamic festival of sacrifice. (Photo by Pius Utomi Ekpei/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)

A woman has her hands painted with traditional henna as she attends Eid al-Adha prayers at historical Badshahi mosque in Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, June 17, 2024. Eid al-Adha or Feast of Sacrifice, the most important Islamic holiday, marks the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim, Abraham to Christians and Jews, to sacrifice his son. During the holiday, which in most places lasts three days, Muslims slaughter goat, sheep or cattle, distribute part of the meat to the poor. (Photo by K.M. Chaudary/AP Photo)

A riot policeman punches Greek photojournalist Tatiana Bolari during a demonstration in Athens' Syntagma (Constitution) square October 5, 2011. Police officers attacked several members of the press covering protests, injuring at least two members of the media. (Photo by Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)