Mahtab is wearing an orange scarf that partially reveals her hair.

"We must put an end to the brutal actions of the morality police which prevent women from choosing their dress," she said in Tehran.

"I like to wear this scarf like others prefer to wear a chador," says this 22-year-old makeup artist in an upscale neighborhood in the north of the Iranian capital.

"But the scarf must be a choice, we must not be forced" to put it on, she adds.

Demonstrations with several deaths erupted in Iran after the authorities announced on September 16 the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, after her arrest for "wearing inappropriate clothes" by the morality police, responsible for enforcing a dress code for women.

Neither tight pants nor bright colors

Mahtab admits to being afraid of this police unit but has not changed the way he dresses, nor the way he wears the veil.

This font “is useless”, she asserts.

In Iran, women are required to cover their hair, and the morality police also prohibit them from wearing over-the-knee coats, tight pants, jeans with holes, and brightly colored outfits, among other things. .

Nazanin, a 23-year-old nurse, prefers not to take any risks.

"I will now pay more attention to how to wear the veil so as not to have any problems," she confides.

But like Mahtab, she believes this unit should be taken off the streets because “it is not behaving properly”.

"Orientation of Murder"

“I don't understand why these policemen are confronting people when (…) all the women are wearing scarves and decent dresses.

If the police want to go even further, then it's interference, ”says this woman who wears a fancy black scarf, blending in with her dark hair.

The hostility towards the morality police who track down the slightest misstep in clothing is palpable, especially since Mahsa's death.

With this new incident, people no longer call this unit Gasht-e Ershad (“orientation patrols”) but Ghatl-e Ershad (“guidance of murder”), says Reyhaneh, a 25-year-old student in the north from Tehran.

And to doubt the “effectiveness of the use of force” against women.

"Wearing the hijab should not be governed by law," says this young woman who wears a beige scarf, from which her hair protrudes.

The scarf well back

If in the south of the capital, which is poorer and more conservative, the wearing of the chador and dark clothes is predominant, in the north, which is more affluent, the outfits are on the other hand much more relaxed.

On Wednesday, after several days of protests, life had returned to normal in Tehran, and in the northern neighborhoods, girls continued to wear headscarves well back without anyone seeming to notice them.

The death of Mahsa Amini “made us sad.

What happened upset the whole society,” says Reyhaneh.

The morality police “should be more lenient and less aggressive.

Wearing the veil is a personal matter and it is a woman's right to dress as she wishes,” she adds.

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