Iran on Sunday abolished its morality police force months after widespread protests erupted in the country following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody, who had been held for allegedly violating the rule for women to wear a hijab, AFP reported.
“Morality police have nothing to do with judiciary,” Iranian Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said on Sunday, according to AFP.
The decision to do away with the morality police came after the Iranian authorities said on Saturday that they will review the law that requires all women to cover their heads in public.
“Both parliament and the judiciary are working [on the matter]” had said, adding that a review team met the parliament’s cultural commission to discuss the subject on Wednesday.
The statement came two-and-a-half months after violent protests erupted in Iran triggered by the death of a 22-year-old Amini in custody of the morality police .
Amini, a Kurdish woman, had been detained on September 13 in the Iranian capital of Tehran by the police unit that enforces the country’s obligatory dress codes, including the compulsory wearing of the headscarf in public.
Officials said she died of heart attack on September 16 while in custody but critics believe she was physically assaulted on accusations of violating the hijab mandate.
The state security council of Iran’s interior ministry said that 200 persons have died in the protests, Reuters reported. Amirali Hajizadeh, a commander of the country’s Revolutionary Guards, said that 300 persons, including security officials, have been killed in the violence.
On Saturday, President Ebrahim Raisi said that the country’s republican and Islamic foundations were entrenched in the constitution. “But there are methods of implementing the constitution that can be flexible,” he said.
Since 1983, it has been obligatory for all women in Iran to cover their heads in public. The country’s main reformist party, the Union of Islamic Iran People Party, has been calling for the law mandating hijabs to be rescinded.
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