Nasibe Samsaei, an Iranian woman, cuts her ponytail during a protest in Tehran following the death of an Iranian woman who was arrested by the country’s morality police.
The morality police have been officially abolished in Iran, according to the country’s attorney general, following the death of a young Kurd following her arrest by religious police.
Responding to a participant’s question about “why the morality police were abolished” at a religious conference in the holy city of Qom on the evening of December 3, Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said it was “abolished by those who created it.”
This announcement, made on December 4 by the Isna news agency, came after the authorities decided to revise a 1983 law mandating the wearing of the veil in Iran, which was enacted four years after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Under conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the vice police, known as the Gasht-e Ershad (guidance patrols), were established to “spread the culture of decency and hijab.” It consists of men dressed in green uniforms and women dressed in black chador covering the head and upper body. In 2006, this unit began its first patrols.
The morality police arrested Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, in Tehran on September 13, accusing her of violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code, which requires women to wear the veil in public. Three days later, his death was announced, sparking a massive protest movement. Tehran had denied any link between his death and his arrest, but the protesters were not convinced.
During these protest rallies, which the authorities referred to as “riots,” dozens of people, mostly demonstrators but also members of the security forces, were killed and hundreds more were arrested.
The authorities are investigating the veil law.
Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri also stated that parliament and the judiciary were working on the issue of compulsory veiling, without elaborating on what the law might change.
This is a sensitive issue in Iran, where two camps oppose each other: conservatives who defend the 1983 law, and progressives who want to give women the option of wearing it or not.
Iranian and foreign women, regardless of religion, are required to wear a veil and remove their clothing in public, according to a law in effect since 1983.
Since Mahsa Amini’s death and the subsequent protests, many women have been wearing their heads uncovered, particularly in Tehran’s affluent north. A week after the protests began, Iran’s main reform party urged the government to lift the veil requirement.
