It has not been announced to what extent the law could be changed. The attorney general announced results in “a week or two”.
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 was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency on Friday. 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.” Since 1983, women in Iran have been required to wear a headscarf.
More and more women are taking off their headscarves.
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. That number includes “civilians and security forces killed, victims of clashes between hostile groups, demonstrators and counterrevolutionary and separatist groups”, according to the state news agency IRNA.
(APA)