Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said on Thursday that Iran’s parliament and judiciary are reviewing the law hijab mandatory in the country, according to the pro-reform channel Entekhab.
Montazeri was also quoted as saying that Iran’s feared morality police had been “abolished”, but Iranian state media strongly rejected those comments, saying the Ministry of Interior oversees the force, not the judiciary.
THE CNN is contacting the Home Office for comment.
Wearing the hijab in public is currently mandatory for women in Iran under strict Islamic law enforced by the country’s so-called moral police.
The head covering laws sparked a nationwide protest movement following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being detained by morality police allegedly for failing to wear her hijab properly.
His death on 16 September touched a chord in the Islamic Republic, with prominent public figures supporting the movement, including Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti.
The country was gripped by a wave of mass protests that began over Amini’s death and have since coalesced around a series of grievances against the regime. Authorities have unleashed a deadly crackdown on protesters, with reports of forced arrests and physical abuse being used to target the country’s Kurdish minority group.
In a recent investigation by the CNN, secret testimony revealed sexual violence against protesters, including boys, in Iran’s detention centers since the unrest began.
On the hijab law, Montazeri said: “We know you feel distressed when witnessing [mulheres] no hijab in cities do you think officials are silent about this? As someone who is in the field of this issue, I say that both the parliament and the judiciary are working, for example, just yesterday we had a meeting with the cultural commission of the parliament and you will see the results in the next week or two”, as quoted by ISNA , state-affiliated media.
But there is no evidence of what changes, if any, could be made to the law, which took effect after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
In response to a reporter who asked whether the country’s moral police was being disbanded, Montazeri was quoted by an Iranian state media outlet as saying, “The moral police has nothing to do with the judiciary. It was abolished from the same place it was released. Of course, the Judiciary will continue to monitor the behavior of society.”
State-run Arabic-language Al-Alam television said foreign media were describing Montazeri’s comments as “a retreat by the Islamic Republic from its position on the hijab and religious morality as a result of the protests”, but that all What could be understood from his comment is that the moral police were not directly related to the judiciary.
“But no official from the Islamic Republic of Iran has said that the Guidance Patrol has been closed,” Al-Alam said on Sunday afternoon.
“Some foreign media tried to interpret these words of the attorney general as the Islamic Republic moving away from the issue of hijab and modesty and claim that this is due to the recent disturbances.”
The statements were made in Qom, considered a holy city in Siha Islam.
Source: CNN Brasil
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