TEHRAN : Following three months Anti hijab protests which erupted over the death of a 22 year old woman activist Mahsa Amini, the Iranian government has disbanded the dreaded “morality police”.
Iran’s state IRNA news agency on December Sunday quoted Mohammad Jafar Montazeri as saying, “the morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary.”
The controversial morality police patrols were established in 2006 under hard-line President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to enforce the country’s Islamic dress codes, particularly the requirement to wear the hijab, or female head covering.
The squads of men in green uniforms and women in black chadors initially issued warnings, but soon began arresting women for alleged violations.
Montazeri was quoted the previous day as saying parliament and the judiciary were “working” on whether the law requiring women to wear the hijab in public should be changed. He added that “the results will be seen in a week or two.”
As per reports, the anti hijab protests which took ugly turn following the death of Amini’s in September in Iran results in killing of nearly 200 people.
The United Nations and Iranian rights groups put the figure at more than 300, as the national protests have evolved into one of the most serious challenges to the theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.