However, he added, “after the recent incidents, the security and cultural agencies are looking for a prudent solution to the problem.” Mr. Montazeri added that the judiciary was drafting a bill “regarding the area of chastity and the hijab.”
The next day, Mr. Raisi said in a television interview that “there are methods and mechanisms of law enforcement that need to be reviewed,” according to IRNAIran’s state news agency.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, when asked over the weekend about the ethics police at a news conference in Belgrade, Serbia, where he is on an official visit, did not deny that the force had abolished, but said, “In Iran, things are going well within the framework of democracy and freedom.”
A state TV channel, Al Alam in Arabic, appears to have retracted the attorney general’s comments on Sunday, reporting that they were taken out of context and insisting that “no official in the Islamic Republic of Iran confirm reports of the Guided Patrol being abolished. Other state channels say the government is not backing down from the mandatory hijab law.
“We will not withdraw from the policy of headscarves and virginity, otherwise, withdrawing will mean abandoning the entire Islamic Republic,” said Hossein Jalali, member of the National Assembly’s Cultural Committee, said on monday at a gathering of women who support hijab in Qom city. “The hijab is our flag and we won’t let it fall,” he added.
Asked on Monday about the status of the unit, a spokesman for Tehran’s regional police force, Colonel Ali Sabahi, told a reporter from Shargh daily to refer back to the attorney general. He added that police would have a statement “when appropriate” to do so.
