Iran’s Attorney General has announced that the country’s “morality police” will be disbanded, according to media reports on Sunday.
“The morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary and have been abolished,” Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency late Saturday.
However, it is unclear whether the troupe will be re-established in a different context or under a different name. State news agencies have reported that death sentences and trials for “moral” offenses are continuing.
“Of course, the judiciary continues to monitor behavioral acts,” Montazeri said Saturday at a conference where he outlined religion-based policies.
Kamran Matin, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Sussex, told DW that the Attorney General’s announcement should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Matin clarified that Iran’s mortality police are not part of the judicial system, but run by so-called law enforcement or police forces.
“Such an announcement should actually be announced by this institution and it has not yet happened,” said Matin.
Tehran under pressure
In September, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in vice squad custody after being arrested for improperly wearing a headscarf, sparking months of anti-government protests.
The regime in Tehran has been under considerable pressure since Amini’s death.
On Saturday, Montazeri also said authorities are reviewing the decades-old law requiring women to wear headscarves to see if any “changes” are needed.
Who are the “moral police”
The so-called morality police are a unit of the Iranian police tasked with enforcing laws governing Islamic dress code and other behavior in public.
They began patrolling the streets in 2006 after being set up by hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iranian law requires women and post-adolescent girls to wear head coverings and loose-fitting clothing in public.
The Vice Police have been accused of arbitrarily arresting women for transgressions.
Have the protests in Iran had any effect?
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kb/wmr (AFP, dpa)