Protests lead to action against morality police

TEHRAN: Iran has scrapped its morality police ater more than two months of protests triggered by the arrest of Mahsa Amini for allegedly violating the country’s strict female dress code, local media said on Sunday.

Women-led protests, labelled “riots” by the authorities, have swept Iran since the 22-yearold Iranian of Kurdish origin died on Sept.16, three days ater her arrest by the morality police in Tehran.

“Morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary” and have been abolished, Atorney 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.

The morality police — known formally as the Gasht-e-ershad or “Guidance Patrol” — were established under president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to “spread the culture of modesty and hijab,” the mandatory female head covering. The units began patrols in 2006.

The announcement of their abolition came a day ater Montazeri said that “both parliament and the judiciary are working (on the issue)” of whether the law requiring women to cover their heads needs to be changed.

President Ebrahim Raisi said in televised comments on Saturday that Iran’s republican and Islamic foundations were constitutionally entrenched “but there are methods of implementing the constitution that can be flexible.”

The hijab became mandatory four years ater the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Usbacked monarchy and established the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Morality police officers initially issued warnings before starting to crack down and arrest women 15 years ago.