Are the protests that have roiled Iran for months now bearing fruit? After months of mobilization in Tehran and in several major cities in the country, the authorities this Sunday announced the abolition of the vice police, whose role in the death of young Mahsa Amini is pointed out.
This unit “has nothing to do with the judiciary and was abolished by those who created it,” said Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Jafar. However, the terms of its abolition have not been clarified. The disbandment of the patrol has yet to be confirmed by other Iranian rulers. The Islamic Republic’s dress code checks, which the agents are responsible for, could then continue.
The Islamic Guidance Patrol was behind the arrest of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian Kurd whose death three days later sparked a large protest movement across the country. According to activists and her family, the young woman died after being beaten, but authorities linked her death to health problems, which her parents have disputed.
Three months later, disbanding those police forces would illustrate “the whole fragility of the regime,” Mahnaz Shirali, sociologist and author of Window on Iran: The Cry of a Gagged People, analyzed for Le Parisien.
“The protesters are already bending the regime”
“We only see a sign of weakness in power in the face of the protest movement. Despite the arrests and violence endured, the protesters are bent on bending the regime. The Iranians, armed only with their anger, are showing themselves to be stronger than the Islamic Republic, which nevertheless continues to oppress them cruelly,” emphasizes the Iran specialist.
The Morality Police was established during the 1979 Islamic Revolution to “spread the culture of decency and hijab.” In other words, to ensure the observance of the dress code of the Islamic Republic, in particular to require the wearing of the veil for women. This detachment, made up of men in green uniforms and women in black chadors, patrols the streets, checking outfits and making arbitrary arrests.
Protesters ‘call for the resignation of the regime’
Even then, “these police aroused a terrible fear. It consisted of extremely aggressive people,” adds Mahnaz Shirali. “The women were regularly arrested and sentenced to flogging because the authorities felt their veils were not in accordance with regulations.” The role of this patrol has evolved over the years but has always received its fair share of condemnations, including from NGOs.
Last July, the ultra-conservative at the head of the country, Ebrahim Raïssi, called for the mobilization of “all institutions to strengthen the law on the veil”. The zeal of the authorities has increased, the number of checks and arrests has increased. In September, the death of Mahsa Amini, who was accused of disrespecting “morality”, opened a breach and sparked a wave of demonstrations led by women shouting their thirst for freedom. Showing that the regime is trembling, the powers that be again announced on Friday that the authorities are working on the issue of the veil.
The rigidity of an ultra-conservative power now meets the younger generation’s desire for modernity. And if the denounced abolition of a patrol “would mark a step”, it will not be enough to quell the revolt of a youth fighting state authoritarianism, judges Mahnaz Shirali. “The demands of Iranian society continue. It is not only demanding the abolition of a police force or the wearing of the veil, but the resignation of an entire regime,” insists Mahnaz Shirali, for whom the demonstrations are to continue.