Iran has announced the abolition of the morality police responsible for the arrest of the young woman, Mohseh Amini, whose death in custody sparked a wave of protest in Iran that lasted nearly three months.
The announcement, seen as a gesture towards the protesters, came after the authorities decided on Saturday to revise the 1983 law on compulsory veiling in Iran, which was imposed four years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
It’s the police of the people who had arrived on the 13th of September Mahsa Amini, the Iranian Kurde of the 22nd, when Téheran was accusant of not respecting the strict vestimentaire code in Islamic Republique, which imposed a port on women’s rights. public.
His death was announced three days later. Activists and her family say that Mahsa Amini died after being beaten, but the authorities linked her death to health issues, which her parents denied.
Her killing sparked a wave of demonstrations during which women, the spearhead of the protest, undressed, burned veils and chanted “Woman, life, freedom”.
Despite the crackdown that has left hundreds dead, the protest movement continues.
The ISNA news agency quoted Attorney General Mohammad Jaafar Montazeri as saying on Saturday evening, “The morality police (…) was abolished by those who established it.”
This police force, known as the “Jesht-e-Irshad” (guidance patrols), was set up under ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013), in order to “spread a culture of decency and veiling”.
This unit, made up of men in green uniforms and women in a black chador that covers the head and upper body, began patrols in 2006 with the aim of enforcing the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code which also prohibits women from wearing tight pants or shorts. Women who break the law risk deportation.
Gasht-e Ershad was set up at the time by the Supreme Council for the Cultural Revolution, led by ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi, who will be elected in 2021.
In July, Mr. Raisi called for the mobilization of “all institutions to promote the headscarf law,” declaring that “the enemies of Iran and Islam want to undermine the cultural and religious values of society.”
However, under his moderate predecessor Hassan Rouhani, one could come across women in skinny jeans wearing colorful headscarves.
The Public Prosecutor himself, Muhammad Jaafar Montazeri, had announced on Saturday that “the House of Representatives and the judiciary are working” on the issue of compulsory veiling, without specifying what can be amended in the law.
This is a very sensitive issue in Iran, where two camps collide: conservatives who brace for the 1983 law and progressives who want to give women the right to choose whether or not to wear them.
According to the law in effect since 1983, Iranian and foreign women, regardless of their religion, must wear headscarves and loose-fitting clothing in public.
Since Mohsaa Amini’s death and the demonstrations that followed, an increasing number of women baring their heads have increased, especially in the upscale area of northern Tehran.
On September 24, a week after the protests began, Iran’s main reform party urged the country to drop the headscarf requirement.
The Iranian authorities consider the demonstrations “riots” and accuse foreign forces of being behind this movement to destabilize the country.
According to the latest report by Iranian Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh of the Revolutionary Guards, more than 300 people have been killed in the protests since September 16.
