Iran’s morality police, tasked with enforcing the country’s Islamic dress code, is being disbanded, the country’s attorney general says.
Mohammad Jafar Montazeri’s comments, which have not been confirmed by other agencies, were made at an event on Sunday.
Protests have been going on for months after the death of a young woman in custody in Iran.
Mehsa Amini was detained by the Morality Police for allegedly flouting strict head covering rules.
Mr. Montazeri was at a religious conference when he was asked if the moral police were being abolished.
“The moral police had nothing to do with the judiciary and have been shut down from where they were established,” he said.
The control of the force lies with the Ministry of Interior and not with the Judiciary.
On Saturday, Mr. Montazari also told the Iranian parliament that a law requiring women to wear the hijab would be considered.
Shutting down the ethics police doesn’t mean changing a decades-old law.
Women-led protests have dubbed Iran “riots” since Amini, 22, died in custody on September 16, three days after she was arrested by moral police in Tehran.
His death was the trigger for unrest, but it also followed discontent over poverty, unemployment, inequality, injustice and corruption.
‘Revolution is what we have’
If confirmed, the abolition of the morality police would be a concession but there is no guarantee it would be enough to stop the protests, which have seen protesters burning their heads.
“Just because the government has decided to end the moral police, it doesn’t mean the protests are ending,” one Iranian woman told JEE News.
“Even the government saying that the hijab is a personal choice is not enough. People know that this regime has no future in Iran. We want moderate and traditional people from different factions of Iranian society to wear women’s clothes. Will see people coming out in support. Get more of their rights back.”
Another woman said: “We, the protesters, don’t care about any hijab anymore. We have been going out without it for the last 70 days.
“The revolution is what we have. The hijab was the beginning and we want nothing, nothing, but death for the dictator and a change of regime.”
According to JEE News, Iran’s state media pushed back on claims that the country’s morality police were being dismantled.
JEE News reportedly said foreign media described Mr Montazeri’s comments as “the Islamic Republic backing away from the hijab and hijab issue, claiming it was due to the recent riots”.
“But no official in the Islamic Republic of Iran has said that the Guidance Patrol has been stopped.”
US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken said the end of Iran’s morality police could be “a positive thing” and praised the “extraordinary courage of young Iranians, especially women, who are leading these protests”.
Blinken said: “If the government has now responded in some way to these protests, that could be a positive thing.”
Various forms of “morality police” have existed in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but the latest version — formally known as the Gust Irshad — currently serves to enforce Iran’s Islamic code of conduct. Vali is the main agency.
They began their patrols in 2006 to enforce a dress code that also requires women to wear long dresses and prohibits shorts, ripped jeans and other clothing deemed inappropriate.
