Attorney General Montazeri Of Iran Says Hijab Law Is Under Review
Iran says Hijab law is under review, according to the attorney general. The attorney general said that Iran's parliament and court system are reviewing a law that says women have to cover their heads. This law led to more than two months of deadly protests.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman with Kurdish roots, died in jail on September 16 after being arrested by Iran's morality police for allegedly breaking the dress code. This is what started the protests.
Iran Says Hijab Law Is Under Review
Iran to review hijab law | GMA
A top Iranian official said that the country's mandatory hijab law is being looked at, while state media played down the same official's claim that the country's much-feared morality police force had been "abolished" in the midst of ongoing protests.
According to the pro-reform newssite Entekhab, Iran's Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said on Thursday that Iran's parliament and judiciary were reviewing the law that says women must wear a hijab in public.
Montazeri was also quoted as saying on Saturday that Iran's morality police had been "abolished." However, Iranian state media strongly disagreed with this, saying that the interior ministry, not the judiciary, is in charge of the force.
CNN is trying to get the Ministry of the Interior to say something about it. Women in Iran must wear a hijab in public because of strict Islamic law, which is enforced by the country's so-called "morality police."
After Mahsa Amini, 22, died in police custody after being arrested by the "morality police" for not wearing her hijab correctly, there was a protest movement all over the country about the head covering laws.
Her death on September 16 hit a nerve in the Islamic Republic. Well-known people, like top Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti, came out in support of the movement.
The death of Amini sparked a wave of mass protests across the country, which have since centered on a wide range of problems with the government. Authorities have started a deadly crackdown on protesters. There are reports that the country's Kurdish minority group is being targeted with forced detentions and physical abuse.
In a recent CNN report, secret testimony showed that protesters, including boys, have been sexually abused in Iran's detention centers since the start of the unrest. ISNA, a state-affiliated news outlet, said Thursday that Montazeri said this about the hijab law:
“„We know it hurts you to see women in cities not wearing a hijab. Do you think the government doesn't care? As someone who works on this issue, I can tell you that both the parliament and the courts are working on it. For example, just yesterday we met with the parliament's cultural commission, and the results will be clear in a week or two.- Iran's Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri
But there is no evidence that the law, which went into effect in 1979 after the Islamic Revolution, will be changed.
State media say that Montazeri told a reporter on Saturday that the morality police have nothing to do with the justice system in response to a question about whether they would be disbanded. It was stopped in the same place where it began. Of course, the courts will continue to watch how people act.
“„But no official of the Islamic Republic of Iran has said that the Guidance Patrol has been shut. Some foreign media have attempted to interpret these words by the prosecutor-general as the Islamic Republic retreating from the issue of Hijab and modesty and claim that it is due to the recent riots.- Iran's Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri
Al-Alam said Sunday afternoon that no one from the Islamic Republic of Iran has said that the Guidance Patrol has been shut down. Montazeri said these things in Qom, which Siha Islam sees as a holy city.
Conclusion
Iran's government is going to review the so-called "hijab law," which has been in place for decades and says that women in the Islamic country must cover their heads.
Protests have been happening all over the country in recent months after a young Kurdish woman died in police custody after being accused of not wearing a headscarf correctly.
