“The vice police has nothing to do with the judiciary and was abolished by the power that created it.” These are the words of the country’s Prosecutor General, the Isna agency reports.
In practice, this means that the hard-line repressive forces tasked with enforcing strict laws against women are now a thing of the past, after more than two months of vigorous and bloody protests. Officials of notorious ‘vice police’ also charged with death Mhasa Aminiwhose murder has sparked outrage across the country in recent weeks.
The vice police, known as the Ghast-e-Ershad (Eastern Patrols), was created under Iran’s ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “to spread a culture of modesty and wearing the hijab.” It is made up of men in green uniforms and women in black veils, robes that cover the head and upper body. This police started their patrols in 2006.
Also on Saturday, the Iranian authorities asked the judiciary and parliament to review the 1983 law on the mandatory wearing of the hijab in order to find a way out of the protest movement. Wearing a headscarf became mandatory in Iran four years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. According to a 1983 law, women in Iran, local and foreign, regardless of religion, must wear headscarves and loose clothing in public places.
Since July 5, the new law “On headscarves and modesty in the country”, promoted by Iranian President Ebrahim Raishi, has imposed new restrictions on women: according to it, the headscarf must cover not only the hair, but also the neck and shoulders.
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