CNN —
Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said Thursday that Iran’s parliament and judiciary are reviewing the country’s mandatory hijab law, according to pro-reform newspaper Entekhab.
Montazeri was also quoted as saying Iran’s feared morality police had been “abolished,” but Iran’s state media strongly backed down those comments, saying the Interior Ministry oversaw the force, not the judiciary.
CNN is asking the Home Office for comment.
Wearing a headscarf in public is currently mandatory for women in Iran under strict Islamic law, which is enforced by the country’s so-called morality police. The headgear laws sparked a nationwide protest movement following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested by vice squads, allegedly for not wearing her hijab properly.
Her death on September 16 touched a nerve in the Islamic Republic, and prominent public figures supported the movement, including top Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti.
The country was swept by a wave of mass protests, initially sparked by Amini’s death and since then over a series of grievances with the regime. Authorities have unleashed a deadly crackdown on protesters, using reports of forced detention and physical abuse to target the country’s Kurdish minority group.
A recent CNN investigation undercover testimony uncovered sexual violence against protesters, including boys, in Iranian detention centers since the unrest began.
Regarding the hijab law, Montazeri said: “We know that you feel distressed when you are a witness [women] without a headscarf in the cities, do you think the officials are silent about it? As someone who deals with this issue, I say that both Parliament and the judiciary are working, for example just yesterday we had a meeting with Parliament’s Culture Commission and you will see the results within the next week or two.” , as quoted by ISNA, state-affiliated media.
However, there is no indication what, if any, changes to the law, which came into force after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, may be forthcoming.
When asked by a reporter whether the country’s vice squad would be disbanded, Montazeri was quoted by an Iranian state media outlet as saying: “The vice squad has nothing to do with the judiciary. It was abolished in the same place where it started. Of course, the judiciary will continue to monitor the behavior of society.”
Arabic-language state television Al-Alam claimed foreign media portrayed Montazeri’s remarks as “a retreat by the Islamic Republic from its stance on hijab and religious morality in the wake of the protests,” but that was understandable. His comment was that the morality police were not directly involved connected to the judiciary.
“But no official from the Islamic Republic of Iran has said that the Guidance Patrol was closed,” Al-Alam said Sunday afternoon.
“Some foreign media outlets have tried to interpret these words by the Attorney General as meaning that the Islamic Republic is withdrawing from the issue of hijab and modesty, claiming that this was due to the recent unrest.”
The remarks were made in Qom, which is considered a holy city in Siha Islam.