TEHRAN — Iran has scrapped its morality
police after more than two months of protests triggered by the death of Mahsa
Amini following her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s strict female
dress code, an official said Sunday.
Women-led protests, labelled “riots” by the
authorities, have swept Iran since the 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin
died on September 16, three days after her arrest by the morality police in
Tehran.
Demonstrators have burned their mandatory hijab head
coverings and shouted anti-government slogans, and a growing number of women
have refrained from wearing the hijab, particularly in parts of Tehran.
“Morality police have nothing to do with the
judiciary and have been abolished,” Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri
was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
His comment came at a religious conference where he
responded to a question on “why the morality police were being shut down”, the
report said.
The move represents a rare concession to the protest
movement, and authorities have also acknowledged the demoralizing effect of an
economic crisis spurred by US sanctions.
“The best way to confront the riots is to ... pay
attention to people’s real demands,” said the parliament praesidium council
spokesman Seyyed Nezamoldin Mousavi, referencing “livelihoods and the economy”.
‘Culture of modesty’
The news was treated with
skepticism by some Iranians on social media, including those who expressed
fears its role would be taken over by another unit, as well as others pointing
out that intense social pressure remained at home.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew
Iran’s US-backed monarchy, authorities have monitored adherence to the strict
dress code for women and men.
But under hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
the morality police — known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad or “Guidance Patrol”
— was established to “spread the culture of modesty and hijab”.
The units were set up by Iran’s Supreme Council of
the Cultural Revolution, which is today headed by President Ebrahim Raisi.
They began their patrols in 2006 to enforce the
dress code which also requires women to wear long clothes and forbids shorts,
ripped jeans, and other clothes deemed immodest.
The announcement of the units’ abolition came a day
after Montazeri said “both parliament and the judiciary are working” on the
issue of whether the law requiring women to cover their heads needs to be
changed.
Raisi said in televised comments Saturday that
Iran’s republican and Islamic foundations were constitutionally entrenched “but
there are methods of implementing the constitution that can be flexible”.
The hijab became mandatory in 1983. Morality police
officers initially issued warnings before starting to crack down and arrest
women 15 years ago.
The squads were usually made up of men in green
uniforms and women clad in black chadors, garments that cover their heads and
upper bodies.
The role of the units evolved but has always been
controversial.
Clothing norms gradually changed, especially under
former moderate president Hassan Rouhani, when it became common to see women in
tight jeans and with loose, colorful headscarves.
But in July this year his successor, the
ultra-conservative Raisi, called for the mobilization of “all state
institutions to enforce the headscarf law”.
Raisi at the time charged that “the enemies of Iran
and Islam have targeted the cultural and religious values of society by
spreading corruption”.
Thousands arrested
In September, the Union of
Islamic Iran People Party, the country’s main reformist party, called for the
hijab law to be rescinded.
On Saturday it also called for the Islamic republic
to publicly shut down the morality police and “allow peaceful demonstrations”.
Iran accuses its enemy the US and its allies,
including Britain and Israel, and Kurdish groups based outside the country, of
fomenting the street protests.
More than 300 people have been killed in the unrest,
including dozens of security force members, an Iranian general said on Monday.
Oslo-based non-government organization Iran Human
Rights last week said at least 448 people had been “killed by security forces
in the ongoing nationwide protests”.
Thousands have been arrested, including prominent
Iranian actors and footballers.
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