Iran has reportedly abolished the morality police that found itself at the center of a storm of monthslong protests following the arrest and death of Mahsa Amini over female dress code violations, according to local media Sunday.
Women-led protests, labeled "riots" by the authorities, have swept Iran since the 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin died on Sept. 16, three days after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran.
"Morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary" and have been abolished, Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
His comment came at a religious conference where he responded to a participant who asked "why the morality police were being shut down," the report said.
The morality police – known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad or "Guidance Patrol" – were established under hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to "spread the culture of modesty and hijab," the mandatory female head covering.
The units began patrols in 2006.
The announcement of their abolition came a day after Montazeri said that "both parliament and the judiciary are working (on the issue)" of whether the law requiring women to cover their heads needs to be changed.
President Ebrahim Raisi said in televised comments Saturday that Iran's republican and Islamic foundations were constitutionally entrenched "but there are methods of implementing the constitution that can be flexible."
The hijab became mandatory four years after the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed monarchy and established the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Morality police officers initially issued warnings before starting to crack down and arrest women 15 years ago.
The vice squads were usually made up of men in green uniforms and women clad in black chadors, garments that cover their heads and upper bodies.
The role of the units evolved but has always been controversial even among candidates running for the presidency.
Clothing norms gradually changed, especially under former moderate President Hassan Rouhani. But in July this year his conservative successor, Raisi, called for the mobilization of "all state institutions to enforce the headscarf law."
