Iran got rid of ethical police units after more than two months of protests
Teheran:
Iran has disbanded its ethics police force after more than two months of protests that erupted following the arrest of Mahsa Amini for allegedly violating the country’s strict regulations. women’s clothingLocal media said Sunday.
Women-led protestsDubbed a “riot” by the authorities, has swept Iran since the 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish girl died on September 16, three days after she was arrested by ethics police in Tehran.
The “ethical police have nothing to do with the judiciary” and have been abolished, Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying.
His comments came at a religious conference, where he responded to a participant who asked “why is the ethics police closed,” the report said.
The Ethical Police – known officially as the Gasht-e Ershad or “Guide Patrol” – was created under hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to “spread a culture of humility and tyranny.” headscarves”, women are required to cover their heads.
Units began patrolling in 2006.
The announcement of their repeal came a day after Montazeri said that “both parliament and the judiciary are working (on the matter)” on whether the law requiring women to cover their heads needs to be changed. or not.
President Ebrahim Raisi said in television comments on Saturday that Iran’s republics and Islam were constitutionally consolidated “but there are methods of constitutional enforcement that can be flexible”.
The headscarf became mandatory four years after the 1979 revolution that overthrew the US-backed monarchy and established the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Ethical police officers initially issued warnings before the start of the persecution and arrest of women 15 years ago.
Vice-captains typically consist of men in green uniforms and women in black robes, clothing that covers their heads and upper bodies.
The unit’s role has evolved, but remains controversial even among presidential candidates.
Dress standards gradually changed, especially under former moderate President Hassan Rouhani, when it was common to see women wearing tight jeans with loose colorful headscarves.
But in July this year, his successor, the ultra-conservative Raisi, called for the mobilization of “all state agencies to enforce the hijab law”.
Raisi at the time accused that “the enemies of Iran and Islam have targeted the cultural and religious values of society by spreading corruption”.
Despite this, many women continue to circumvent the law, letting their headscarves fall over their shoulders or wearing tight pants, especially in big cities and towns.
Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia also uses the ethics police to enforce women’s dress codes and other codes of conduct. Since 2016, the force has been pushed aside in an effort to push the Sunni caliphate to shed its austere image.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
