'Pure propaganda' say activists, as suspense prevails over abolition of morality police in Iran

Arbil: Months after protests, Iran’s controversial morality police, tasked to enforce Islamic dress code in the country, has been disbanded. The announcement was made by Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, but not many seem to be happy with it as there has been no confirmation from the Interior Ministry.

Interior Ministry oversees morality police

As per the Iranian state media, the interior ministry oversees the force and not the judiciary. Interestingly, there has been no confirmation on abolishing the morality police.

Hours after Montazeri’s announcement, Iranian lawmaker Nezamoddin Mousavi said that the government is “paying attention to the people’s real demands.”

Mousavi’s statement came after a meeting with several senior Iranian officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi.

“Both the administration and parliament insisted that paying attention to the people’s demand that is mainly economic is the best way for achieving stability and confronting the riots,” Mousavi said.

There was no mention of shutting down the morality police in Iran. Top officials of the country have been persistently saying that Tehran would not change the Islamic Republic’s “mandatory hijab policy”.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian did not comment clearly on Montazeri’s statement and said, “Be sure that in Iran, within the framework of democracy and freedom, which very clearly exists in Iran, everything is going very well.”

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What did Mohammad Jafar Montazeri say?

Montazeri said that the Iran government is reviewing the mandatory hijab policy. He went on say, the morality police “was abolished by the same authorities who installed it.”

“We are working fast on the issue of hijab and we are doing our best to come up with a thoughtful solution to deal with this phenomenon that hurts everyone’s heart,” he added.

‘Pure propaganda’

Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad that the announcement of Iran abolishing morality police “was pure propaganda by the regime to calm the ongoing anti-regime uprisings.”

2-The source of today's news turned out to be poorly researched. Why wasn’t there proper fact-checking? Why did the international community so readily consume this poor journalism?

This was pure propaganda by the regime to calm the ongoing anti-regime uprisings

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) December 5, 2022

“Yet, Iranians aren’t just asking for an end to morality police. They want to end this regime,” Alinejad said.

Lambasting at the Iranian government, she said: “A regime can’t kill more than 450 protesters in 2 months including 62 children, pressure their families to keep quiet, arrest 18,000 people, sentenced many of them to death penalty and then say the morality police has been suspended. Don’t buy the Islamic regime’s lies.”

Three-day strike

Amid the conflicting reports on abolition of the morality police in the country, Iranians have called for a three-day strike. They are seeking to maintain their challenge to the country’s clerical rulers.

The strike call, in a way, will intensify pressure of Iranian authorities after the attorney general’s statement this weekend that the morality police - whose detention of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini triggered months of protests - had been shot down.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the outrage that erupted in September after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman who was detained by the morality police for her “incorrectly” wearing the mandatory hijab.

After her death on 16 September, the Iranian government denied that she was assaulted and has accused the US and Israel of orchestrating the protests across Iran.

Over the past week, the agitation expanded from anger over the hijab law to a broader dissatisfaction with state representatives reinforcing these policies.

According to HRANA news agency, as of Saturday, 470 protesters, including 64 minors, had been killed. It said 18,210 demonstrators were arrested.

Iran’s morality police

“Gasht-e-Ershad,” which translates as “guidance patrols,” and is widely known as the “morality police,” is a unit of Iran’s police force. It has been formed under ex-hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Wearing of the hijab has been made compulsory in Iran in 1983. In 2006, the unit started patrolling the streets and were tasked with enforcing the laws on Islamic dress code in public.

As per the Iranian law, all women above the age of puberty must have their head properly covered and wear loose clothing in public.

In the past, morality police squads have made men wear green uniforms and women black chadors, garments which cover the head and upper body.

Those detained by the “morality police” are given a notice or, are taken to a so-called education and advice center or a police station, where they are required to attend a lecture on the hijab and Islamic values. They then have to call someone to bring them “appropriate clothes” in order to be released.

Hijab was once banned in Iran

In 1936, during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi, hijab was actually banned in an effort to “modernise” Iran and the police would remove it from the heads of women seen wearing it in public.

However, it did not last long and was again made mandatory when conservative forces aligned with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini deposed Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, son of Reza Shah, and proclaimed the Islamic Republic.

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