Iran’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, was recently quoted in local media remarking that the country’s morality police had been “shut down”. Montazeri’s comments came as nationwide protests entered their third month, sparked by the police murder of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September.
The Iranian ruling class is currently faced with the most widespread and arguably deepest struggle since the 1979 revolution, which toppled Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and abolished the monarchy. But it is clear that the government has no intention of disbanding the morality police. The regime has cracked down on nationwide strikes and protests with full force. According to a Human Rights Activists News Agency report, at least 448 protesters have been killed and more than 18,170 arrested since mid-September.
In the context of the ongoing and defiant nationwide rebellion, there have been gestures from some in the Iranian establishment that the regime could be open to conceding some of the protesters’ demands.
Former military officer and current Tourism Minister Ezzatollah Zarghami delivered a speech at Sharif University in which he suggested the need for reforms. Radio Farda quoted Zarghami as saying: “Today our young girls and students walk in the street without headscarves. So what? Did the lack of hijab destroy the revolution and the system?” Similar remarks have been made by others, such as parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
Read the article by Bella Beiraghi in Red Flag.