No details on whether new authority will be formed

Iran says ‘morality police’ scrapped after weeks of protest sparked by woman’s death

Country’s AG reportedly makes announcement at conference on religion, more than 2 months after Mahsa Amini died in custody; no comment from Interior Ministry, which controls force

An Iranian morality policewoman walks between morality police vehicles, preparing to start a crackdown to enforce Islamic dress code in Tehran, July 23, 2007. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP)
An Iranian morality policewoman walks between morality police vehicles, preparing to start a crackdown to enforce Islamic dress code in Tehran, July 23, 2007. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP)

TEHRAN — Iran has scrapped its so-called “morality police” after more than two months of protests triggered by the arrest of Mahsa Amini for allegedly violating the country’s strict female dress code, local Iranian media said Sunday.

Women-led protests, labeled “riots” by the authorities, have swept Iran since the 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin died in custody 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 since Amini’s death, a growing number of women have chosen not to wear 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 participant who asked “why the morality police were being shut down,” the report said.

It was not clear whether the so-called morality police would be replaced by another force or authority.

The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the morality police, has not publicly commented on its status, the Reuters news agency reported Sunday.

Iranians who live in Brazil protest the death of Mahsa Amini, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, September 23, 2022 (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew Iran’s US-backed monarchy, there has been some kind of official monitoring of the strict dress code for both men and women.

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 unit’s 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.”

‘Spreading corruption’

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.

In this file photo taken on July 23, 2007, an Iranian policewoman speaks with women regarding her clothing during a crackdown to enforce Islamic dress code in the capital Tehran (Behrouz MEHRI / AFP)

The role of the units evolved, but has always been controversial even among candidates running for the presidency.

Clothing norms gradually changed, especially under former relatively moderate president Hassan Rouhani.

But in July this year his successor, the ultra-conservative Raisi, called for the mobilization of “all state institutions to enforce the headscarf law.”

In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Ebrahim Raisi speaks in an interview with the state TV at the presidency office in Tehran, Iran on Sept. 28, 2022. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

Raisi at the time charged that “the enemies of Iran and Islam have targeted the cultural and religious values of society by spreading corruption.”

Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia also employed morality police to enforce female dress codes and other rules of behavior. Since 2016 the force there has been sidelined in a push by the Sunni Muslim kingdom to shake off its austere image.

In September, the Union of Islamic Iran People Party, the country’s main reformist party, called for the hijab law to be rescinded.

The party, created by relatives of former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, demands authorities “prepare the legal elements paving the way for the cancellation of the mandatory hijab law.”

As recently as Saturday it also called for the Islamic republic to “officially announce the end of the activities of the morality police” and “allow peaceful demonstrations.”

Iran accuses its enemy the United States and its allies, including Britain and Israel, and Kurdish groups based outside the country, of fomenting the street protests.

In this Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, a police motorcycle and a trash bin are burning during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the nation’s morality police, in downtown Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo)

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 on Tuesday said at least 448 people had been “killed by security forces in the ongoing nationwide protests.”

Thousands of people have been arrested, including prominent Iranian actors and footballers.

Among them was the actor Hengameh Ghaziani, detained last month. She had published on Instagram a video of herself removing her head covering. She was later freed on bail, Iranian news agencies reported.

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