Iran has abolished its morality police after months of protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, according to reports.
"Morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary" and have been abolished, Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was quoted as saying by Iran's ISNA news agency.
He was also cited by the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency. "The same authority which has established this police has shut it down," Montazeri was quoted as saying.
Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the claims and has contacted Iran's Ministry of Justice for comment.
It comes after Montazeri said Iran was reviewing the decades-old law that requires women in Iran to cover their heads. "Both parliament and the judiciary are working (on the issue)" of whether the law needs any changes, he said.
Protests in Iran first erupted in September after the death of 22-year-old Amini.
She was detained by Iran's morality police in Tehran for violating the country's strictly enforced Islamic dress code because of her allegedly loose headscarf, or hijab. Amini was reportedly beaten after her arrest and died three days later.
According to the country's government, Amini died of a heart attack and she was not mistreated while in custody.
The protests triggered by Amini's death quickly morphed into the most serious challenge to Iran's theocracy since its establishment in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Many Iranians viewed Amini's death as part of the Islamic Republic's heavy-handed policing of dissent and the morality police's increasingly violent treatment of young women. The unit was established almost 20 years ago to enforce Iran's laws against immodesty and societal vices.
Some women tore off their mandatory hijabs, while protesters have shouted and brandished slogans against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and repeatedly called for an end to the Islamic government.
At least 470 people have been killed since the demonstrations started, and more than 18,000 have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, an advocacy group following the demonstrations.
The U.S. government in September imposed sanctions on Iran's morality police and the leaders of other Iranian government agencies.
"These officials oversee organizations that routinely employ violence to suppress peaceful protesters and members of Iranian civil society, political dissidents, women's rights activists, and members of the Iranian Baha'i community," the Treasury said in a news release.
In October, President Joe Biden said the U.S. is "holding accountable Iranian officials and entities, such as the Morality Police, that are responsible for employing violence to suppress civil society."
Iran has blamed the revolt on foreign enemies, including the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel.
"Iran has the most progressive constitution in the world" because it marries "ideals with democracy," Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday, Reuters reported, quoting an unidentified African lawyer he said he met several years ago.
"The constitution guarantees the (existence) of the Islamic system," he said, adding that it also "guarantees fundamental rights and legitimate freedoms."
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Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on abortion rights, race, education, ... Read more
