Iran shuts down ethics police, officially says, after months of protests

Iran has abolished the ethics police, according to the attorney general’s remarks published in state media, after months of protests over the death of a young woman detained by the force for alleged violations. violate the country’s strict Muslim dress code.

The decision, which was reported by state news agencies on Saturday night, appears to be a major victory for feminists, who have sought to disband the force for years, and for the protest was sparked by the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, 22 years old, in September in the custody of the ethics police. The unrest has become one of the biggest challenges in decades to Iran’s authoritarian clerical system, and the decision to remove the ethics police was the government’s first major concession to the government. with protesters.

The ethics police “has been abolished by the very agencies that installed it,” Attorney General Mohammad Javad Montazeri said at a meeting on Saturday where officials were discussing the unrest, according to state media reports. But he went on to suggest that the judiciary would still enforce restrictions on “social behaviour”.

On Thursday, the attorney general said that authorities were reviewing the country’s headscarf regulations and would make a decision within 15 days.

There have been numerous reports from Iranian residents that ethical police have rarely been seen on the streets since protests broke out nearly three months ago and that women are increasingly appearing in public with their hair uncovered. .

If the ethics police were repealed, it would have a major impact on the state’s ability to control what women wear. But it is not clear whether the government plans to relax the law requiring women to cover their hair and body.

The main role of the ethics police is to enforce laws regarding Iran’s conservative Muslim dress code, imposed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and recently invigorated by the ultra-presidential the country’s new conservatives. The dress code for women has become an ideological pillar of the ruling clerical establishment, the center of its identity.

The restrictions require women to cover their bodies with long, loose clothing and to cover their hair with a headscarf or headscarf.

Iranian women have defied the dress code since its inception, wearing colorful gowns, barely covering their hair with loose turbans and in some cases even letting their hair down. The head scarf falls over her shoulders, exposing her hair. Enforcement of the rule has always been uneven and arbitrary, from verbal warnings to fines to arrests.

When Amini died in prison after being arrested by ethics police on the streets of Tehran, the nationwide protests that followed were initially centered on the Muslim dress code but quickly morphed into demands for an end. clericalism and allowing more social freedom, exploiting years of pent-up anger.

The protests, now in their third month, were led by women and youth. Protesters chanted “women, life, freedom”, tore off their headscarves, set them on fire in the street and cut their hair in symbolic acts of defiance.

University student chanting “Murder after murder, go to hell with the moral police!”

The movement has grown to encompass a full range of dissatisfaction with Iran’s ruling establishment, making it unclear whether protesters will be satisfied with the concession announced by the attorney general.

Protesters fed up with political repression, censorship, corruption and economic mismanagement have called for an end to the Islamic Republic. They aimed squarely at the most powerful man in Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom they wanted to deprive.

Women’s rights activists have been at the forefront of creating more flexibility for headscarves, defying the law with protests in which they exposed their hair in videos posted to social media. or on the street. But after the election of a new hardline president, Ebrahim RaisiLast year, the government repressed.

In the months before the protests began in mid-September, videos showed ethical police pulling women into vans to be transported to re-education centers – in one case, while the woman’s mother begged them to stop – sparked new outrage among Iranians.

In September, the United States imposed sanctions on the ethics police.

Security forces responded to the protest movement with a crackdown that left hundreds dead, and the government threatened to severely punish dissidents — including execution.

Human rights groups say at least 400 people have been killed since the protests began, including 50 minors, and the United Nations says around 14,000 people have been arrested. The government said at least 30 members of the security forces were killed.

Emma Bubola Contribution reports from London.