UPDATE: It turns out that the entire report was false:
Update: Iran state television is reporting that the morality police has definitely NOT been removed. pic.twitter.com/uxl24v4cMt
— Borzou Daragahi 🖊🗒 (@borzou) December 4, 2022
—-
But they will still enforce restrictions on “social behavior,” and the hijab law is still in place. So this is just a cosmetic change designed to fool people both inside and outside the country into thinking that the Islamic Republic is reforming. But it isn’t. It also shows, however, that the protests have the mullahs deeply worried. They’re hoping this move will calm everyone down. It shouldn’t.
“Iran Abolishes Morality Police After Months of Protests,” by Vivian Yee, New York Times, December 4, 2022:
Iran has abolished the morality police, according to an announcement by the attorney general carried on state media, following months of protests set off by the death of a young woman who was being held by the force for supposedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress laws.
The decision, reported by state news outlets late Saturday night, appeared to be a major victory for feminists who have sought for years to dismantle the force and for the protest movement ignited by the death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini, 22, in September. The unrest has amounted to one of the biggest challenges in decades to Iran’s system of authoritarian clerical rule and the decision to scrap the morality police was the government’s first major concession to the protesters.
The morality police “was abolished by the same authorities who installed it,” the statement by Attorney General Mohammad Javad Montazeri said, according to state media reports. But he went on to suggest that the judiciary would still enforce restrictions on “social behavior.” He also indicated that the authorities were reviewing the head scarf regulations.
But it was not immediately clear what impact these changes would have on enforcement of the dress code going forward or whether the authorities were planning to relax the hijab law, which remained in place.
The primary role of the morality police was to enforce the laws related to Iran’s conservative Islamic dress code, imposed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and recently invigorated by the country’s new ultraconservative president. The dress code for women became an ideological pillar of the ruling clerical establishment, central to its identity….
I AM THE INFIDEL YOUR IMAM WARNED YOU ABOUT says
To the Iranian people I say, do not stop until full autonomy over your own lives is regained and don’t hand over power over your lives to anyone outside of yourself again. Taking your autonomy back can be a Herculean’s task. Better to not hand it over to others. It will always lead to regrets.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Thanks for issuing this clarification. I saw multiple reports about it, and was unsure about what to believe. This clarification that it has not been removed is more believable: I do think that they’re at the point where they couldn’t save the regime even if they did remove it, since there would be pressure on them to change all their policies. Somehow, I doubt that Iran will ever be a Vietnam, whose communist regime remains to this day but only in name, but they’ve transformed so completely that they are unrecognizable. Pretty much China w/o the authoritarianism or the imperialism
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Also, worth noting: it’s hard for morality police to operate when there are major demonstrations. In other words, when you are confronting rioters and stone pelters, it’s tough to go after women w/o chadors. It would be like expecting the NYPD to crack down on petty crimes like graffiti when they are ravaged by high crime in the city: they have to bring that under control before they can focus on the graffiti
gravenimage says
Islamic Republic of Iran abolishes its Sharia morality police UPDATE: No, it doesn’t
……………………………………………..
Yeah, I was wondering if this report was too optimistic. And so it was…
I hope the demonstrations don’t stop.