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)

Protesters shield themselves as police beat them with sticks during a violent demonstration near the India Gate against a gang rape and brutal beating of a 23-year-old student on a bus last week, in New Delhi, India, December 23, 2012. The attack last Sunday has sparked days of protests across the country. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Associated Press)

A giant river otter, the world's largest otter species, looks out of its enclosure at the newly completed River Safari in Singapore, on March 25, 2013. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/Associated Press)

A reveller is tossed into the air as they celebrate the Holi spring festival in Kathmandu on March 12, 2017. The “Holi” festival of colours is a riotous celebration of the coming of spring and falls on the day after the full moon in early March every year. (Photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP Photo)

A ballet dancer attends a photo shooting as activists from the environmentalist group Greenpeace unfurl a giant banner on the Eiffel Tower which reads “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” in a call on French citizens to vote against the National Front (FN) presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, in Paris, France May 5, 2017. (Photo by Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

In this June 16, 2017 photo, Batel Delciner, 23, removes wood from a furnace to lower the heat cooking sugar juice at the Ti Jean distillery, which produces clairin, a sugar-based alcoholic drink, in Leogane, Haiti. The broth is cooked for about four hours after a fermentation period of four to eight days. (Photo by Dieu Nalio Chery/AP Photo)

Tourists walk as others relax on the beach in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, Egypt, July 17, 2017. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

A child watching the sea while residents try to clear the bed of a river that has been blocked by debris left by Hurricane Matthew, in the commune of Roche-a-Bateaux, in the south west of Haiti, on October 21, 2016. At least 546 people were killed and more than 175,000 people lost their homes when Hurricane Matthew roared ashore on October 4, packing winds of 145 miles (230 kilometers) per hour. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)