Pious hard-liners in Iran are outraged over alleged public flirtations that occurred in an affluent area of Tehran on the night of Ashura, the most sacred day of mourning in Shiite Islam, which commemorates the death of Iman Hossin. According to a weekly paper run by a group of hard-line vigilantes, women and girls in tight clothing and transparent scarves, and men dressed in Western style, laughed and mingled with one another during a ceremony to mark the day, thus breaking Iran’s ban on public displays of affection between unrelated women and men. Hard-liners and newspaper commentators have called for a government crackdown on such impiety, lest vigilantes decided to punish the flirts themselves.