Anti-hijab protesters in Iran have called for a three-day strike in Tehran amid conflicting reports of the closure of the morality policy. The current protests were triggered by the death of a 22-year-old girl who was arrested by the morality police for not wearing a proper hijab.
Iranians protest the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by morality police in Tehran. (AP Photo / Middle East Images)
By India Today Web DeskIranians have called for a three-day strike amid conflicting reports that the regime has abolished the morality police, months after mass protests following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Amini was arrested for wearing the hijab incorrectly.
The protests, which have become one of the biggest sustained challenges to the country’s democracy since the months following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, are refusing to die down even after reports of a morality police crackdown.
In what was regarded as a significant victory for the protesters, Iran’s Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri announced that the morality police unit had been disbanded.
read | ‘Pack your bags and leave’: Iranian women target clerics as anti-hijab protests intensify
However, there was no confirmation of the closure from the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the morality police, and Iranian state media said Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was not responsible for overseeing the force.
‘real demands’
As there was confusion over the status of the morality policy, whose main role was to enforce strict rules on how people, mostly women, dress and behave in public, an Iranian lawmaker said that the government “acted on the real demands of the people”. is paying attention,” state media reported.
Read this also | Iran reviewing decades-old mandatory hijab law amid protests
“Both the administration and the parliament stressed that heeding the people’s demand, which is mainly economic, is the best way to achieve stability and counter the riots,” lawmaker Nejamoddin Mousavi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. He did not address the notice of closure of the ethics policy.
Ending the Morality Police?
According to the Associated Press, since the start of the protests, where women set their hijabs on fire, tore turbans off the heads of Muslim clerics and chanted anti-government slogans, Iranian cities reported a decline in the number of ethical police officers. Is. and an increase in the number of women walking in public without headscarves, contrary to Iranian law.
The official who announced the closure of Ethics Police gave no further details about the future of the agency or whether the closure would be nationwide and permanent.
Read this also | Iran abolishes morality police after months-long anti-hijab protests
However, he added that Iran’s judiciary “will continue to monitor behavior at the community level.”
More than 18,000 people have been arrested in protests and violent security force crackdowns in Iran, according to a group monitoring human rights activists, demonstrations.
rally in tehran
Protesters have now called for a three-day strike and a rally in the capital Tehran’s Azadi Square on Wednesday. Similar calls for strike action and mass mobilization have resulted in an increase in unrest in the past weeks.
Iran in Vicious Cycle?
The Guardian reported that Rob Malley, the US special envoy on Iran, said Iran’s leadership has locked itself in a “vicious cycle” with its crackdown on the protests.
hijab law review
Amidst all this, Mohammad Jaafar Montazeri has also said that he is reviewing a decades-old compulsory hijab law that requires women to cover their heads. The hijab headscarf became mandatory for all women in Iran in April 1983, four years after the Islamic Revolution that overthrew the US-backed monarchy.
It remains a highly sensitive issue in a country where conservatives insist it should be mandatory, while reformers want to leave it up to personal choice.