According to the attorney general, the Iranian parliament and the judiciary of the Islamic Republic are reviewing a law that obliges women to cover their heads. “Parliament and the judiciary are working” on this issue, Attorney General Mohammed Jafar Montazeri said on Friday, according to the ISNA news agency. He announced the results in “a week or two” but declined to comment on what the law might change.
In July, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called for strict enforcement of the headscarf requirement “by all state institutions”. On Saturday, however, he said: Our constitution has strong, unchanging values and principles. (…) But there are methods of implementing the constitution that can be changed.” Women in Iran have been required to wear a headscarf since 1983.
One week protests
Protests have been raging in Iran for weeks. The trigger was the death of 22-year-old Kurd Mahsa Amini – she was arrested by the vice squad in mid-September for allegedly violating the dress code. Since then, more and more women have stopped wearing headscarves. Iran blames its enemy, the United States, and its allies, including Britain and Israel, for the violent clashes.
According to a general earlier in the week, more than 300 people were killed in the violent clashes. On Saturday, the Supreme National Security Council said “more than 200 people” were killed. According to the state news agency IRNA, this number includes “dead civilians and security forces, victims of clashes between hostile groups, demonstrators and counter-revolutionary and separatist groups”.
New nuclear power plant announced
At the same time, Iran says it has started building a new nuclear power plant. As the head of Iran’s nuclear authority, Mohammed Eslami, said on state television on Saturday, the Karun nuclear power plant in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, planned before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, is expected to have an output of 300 megawatts after its conclusion. The construction should last seven years and cost the equivalent of 1.4 to 1.9 billion euros.
So far, Iran has only one nuclear power plant in Bushehr, which produces 1,000 megawatts. The 2015 nuclear deal with Iran was intended to limit Iran’s nuclear program and ensure that the country does not build nuclear weapons. It was negotiated by the US, China, Russia, Germany, France, Great Britain and Iran.
Under then-US President Donald Trump, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and imposed new sanctions on Tehran. As a result, Iran gradually withdrew from its obligations under the deal.
At the Fordo nuclear power plant, Iran has returned to producing 60% enriched uranium. The limit established in the nuclear agreement is 3.67 percent. Uranium enriched to about 90 percent is needed to build atomic bombs.