Published on: 04/12/2022 – 13:07 Modified on: 04/12/2022 – 21:55
Iran’s Attorney General on Saturday announced the abolition of the vice squad behind the arrest of Mahsa Amini, whose death in custody had sparked popular protests for three months. This announcement, which comes on the eve of three days of mobilization and anti-regime strikes, arouses some caution among many Iranian observers and specialists.
Has the Iranian deputy police really been disbanded? Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, Iran’s Attorney General, announced on Saturday December 3 the dissolution of the Morality Police responsible for the September 13 arrest of Mahsa Amini in Tehran for “indecent clothing”.
“The Morality Police […] was abolished by those who created it,” Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said on Saturday night in Qoms, according to the Isna news agency.
Nonetheless, this information arouses some caution among many observers and experts in Iran.
BE CAREFUL with the Attorney General of#Iran, Mohammad Jafar Montazari, who allegedly announced the abolition of the vice squad. As he says himself, this has nothing to do with the judiciary. We’ll have to wait for government confirmation. 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 requiring veils in Iran, imposed four years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“(The Attorney General) also said that these police have no connection with the judiciary and that the judiciary will continue its work to monitor activities in society,” said Siavosh Ghazi, correspondent for France 24 and RFI in Iran.
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Even if the moral police is abolished in its current form, the obligation to wear the veil will remain in place #Iran hence the regime must always apply it. This appears to be a diversionary operation ahead of major mobilizations planned in Iran next week. https://t.co/IVruP4Xcp6
— Farid Vahid (@FaridVahid) December 4, 2022
It was the morality police who arrested Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, in Tehran on September 13, accusing her of not respecting the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code, which requires women in the audience to wear the veil.
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 problems, which her parents have denied. Her death sparked a wave of demonstrations in which women, spearheading the protest, took off and burned their headscarves and shouted “Woman, life, freedom”.
A highly competitive police unit
Known as the Gasht-e Ershad (Orientation Patrols), this police force was created under ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “spread the culture of decency and hijab.” It consists of men in green uniforms and women wearing the black chador, which covers the head and upper body.
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This unit began its first patrols in 2006.
The role of the morality police has evolved over the years, but has always been divisive, even among presidential candidates.
Under the moderate President Hassan Rouhani, you saw women in tight jeans with colorful veils.
But last July, her successor, the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi, called for the mobilization of “all institutions to strengthen the veil law,” stating that “the enemies of Iran and Islam want to undermine cultural and religious values.” of society through the spread of corruption”.
Women who violate the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strict dress code risk being apprehended by this unit.
On Saturday, the same prosecutor, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, also announced that “the parliament and the judiciary were working on the issue of the veil”, without specifying what could be changed in the law.
With AFP