Has Iran's vice police really been disbanded?

Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, the Iranian attorney general, announced on Saturday December 3 the dissolution of the morality police responsible for the arrest for "indecent dress" of Mahsa Amini on September 13 in Tehran.

“The morality police (…) have been abolished by those who created it,” said Saturday evening in Qoms, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, according to comments reported by the Isna news agency.

Information for the time being not confirmed by the Iranian authorities, hence a certain caution on the part of many observers, specialists in Iran.

BEWARE with the Attorney General of #Iran, Mohammad Jafar Montazari, who reportedly announced the abolition of the morality police.

As he says himself, it has nothing to do with the judiciary.

We have to wait for confirmation from the government.

https://t.co/hXDX3kaiKt

— Armin Arefi (@arminarefi) December 4, 2022

The announcement, seen as a gesture towards protesters, came after authorities decided on Saturday to revise a 1983 law on compulsory veiling in Iran, imposed four years after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"(The Attorney General) also said that this police had no connection with justice and that justice would continue its work of monitoring activities in society," said Siavosh Ghazi, correspondent for France 24 and RFI in Iran. .

02:40

Even if the morality police are abolished in its current form, the veil is still compulsory in #Iran so the regime must still enforce it.

This seems to be a diversionary operation ahead of the major mobilizations planned in Iran next week.

https://t.co/IVruP4Xcp6

— Farid Vahid (@FaridVahiid) December 4, 2022

It was the morality police who arrested Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, in Tehran on September 13, accusing her of not respecting the strict dress code in the Islamic Republic, which requires women to wear the veil in audience.

His death was announced three days later.

Activists and her family say Mahsa Amini died after being beaten, but authorities have linked her death to health issues, which her parents have denied.

Her death sparked a wave of demonstrations during which women, the spearhead of the protest, took off and burned their headscarves, shouting "Woman, life, freedom".

A highly contested police unit

This police, known as the Gasht-e Ershad (orientation patrols), was created under ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to "spread the culture of decency and hijab".

It is made up of men in green uniforms and women wearing the black chador, which covers the head and upper body.

This unit began its first patrols in 2006.

The role of the morality police has evolved over the years, but it has always been divisive, even among presidential candidates.

Under moderate President Hassan Rohani, you could see women in tight jeans wearing colorful veils.

But last July, her successor, the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi, called for the mobilization of "all institutions to strengthen the law on the veil", declaring that "the enemies of Iran and Islam wanted to undermine the cultural and religious values ​​of society by spreading corruption".

Women who violated the Islamic Republic of Iran's strict dress code risked being picked up by this unit.

On Saturday, the same prosecutor, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, also announced that "Parliament and the judiciary were working" on the issue of compulsory veiling, without specifying what could be changed in the law.

With AFP

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