- Siavash Ardalan & Marita Moloney
- BBC Persian Service
image source, Getty Images
A protester holds a photo of Mahsa Amini during a protest in Turkey last month.
Iran’s morality police, whose task is to enforce the strict Islamic dress code, will be disbanded, the country’s attorney general has announced.
Mohammad Jafar Montazeri’s comments, which have yet to be confirmed by other agencies, were made during an event on Sunday.
Iran has suffered months of protests over the death of a young woman when he was in police custody.
Mahsa Amini was detained by the morality police for allegedly violating the headscarf regulation.
Montazeri was at a religious conference when asked if the group would be disbanded.
“The morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary and have been closed from the place where they were established,” he said.
The control of that force lies with the Ministry of the Interior and not that of Justice.
On Saturday, Montazeri also mentioned in the Iranian Parliament that the law that requires women to wear the hijabs would be reviewed.
The dismantling of the morality police does not mean that the old law will automatically change.
The protests led by women and described as “revolts” by authorities, have sprouted across Iran since 22-year-old Amini died in custody on September 16, three days following her arrest by morality police in Tehran.
His death was the catalyst for the protests, but they are also a continuation of discontent over poverty, unemployment, inequality, injustice and corruption.
“What we have is a revolution”
image source, Getty Images
There have been demonstrations outside of Iran as well, like this one in London.
If confirmed, the dismantling of the morality police would be a concession, but does not guarantee that it will be enough to stop the protestsin which many protesters have burned their veils.
“Just because the government has decided to dismantle the morale police doesn’t mean the protests are going to end,” an Iranian woman told the BBC.
“Even if the government says that the hijab is a personal choice, it is not enough. The people know that Iran has no future with this government in power. We are going to see more people from different sectors of Iranian society, moderate and traditional, going out to support women to recover their rights”.
Another woman stated: “We protesters don’t care regarding the hijab anymore. We haven’t worn it for the last 70 days.”
“What we have is a revolution. The hijab was the beginning and we want nothing, nothing less, than the death of the dictator and a change of regime.”
Iran has had various versions of a “morals police” since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, but the latest – formally known as Gasht-e Ershad – is currently the lead agency responsible for enforcing Iran’s Islamic code of conduct.
They began their patrols in 2006, to enforce a dress code that also requires women to wear long clothes, and prohibits shorts, ripped jeans and other clothing considered immodest.
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