Unusually, and since the decision of the hard-line President, Ibrahim Raisi, to increase its activity and patrols, the cars of the “moral police” have disappeared from the eyes of the Iranians after the death of the young girl, Mahsa Amini, on the pretext that she was not wearing the Islamic veil properly, according to a newspaper report.The Times” British.
That incident, on September 13, triggered mass protests in at least 80 cities across the country, posing the biggest threat to the regime since the large-scale uprisings over fuel price hikes three years ago.
In the tourist city of Rasht, the capital of Gilan Province and one of the most important cities in northern Iran, security forces fired into crowds during the clashes, killing at least one protester, Behnam Laygpur.
At his funeral this week, women took off their headscarves in protest, while videos circulating on social media showed an elderly woman taking off her veil and chanting: “Death to Khamenei.”
A local resident, who asked to be identified, identified himself as “Gulnaz”, confirmed that he no longer sees the morality police cars that he used to see in front of the municipal square in the past days.
Gulnar said to the British newspaper: “I was watching a patrol with three women wearing the black chador, and their job was to monitor the clothes of girls and women, and to restrain and arrest them if necessary.”
For his part, the 32-year-old journalist, Korosh Zibari, explained that the protest movement encouraged people to speak out about the mistreatment of the morality police.
He continued, “As more stories and reports emerge, it becomes clearer how immoral it is to have a morality police and that imposing a certain dress on women is against Sharia.”
Zibari considered that the Iranian regime has become unequivocally aware that the spread of morality police patrols in cities is fueling unrest, as the population suffers from “an allergy to these green and white trucks.”
However, he noted that the morality police’s withdrawal was not sustainable, adding: “The government treats its doctrine of the veil with urgency and pumps so many resources and money into it that it is hard to imagine that it will admit that it made mistakes.”
In a related context, the British Kurdish activist and defender of women’s rights, Ruwaida Mustafa, stated that the protests turned into anger at the presence of a “dictatorship government.”
And she continued, “The demonstrations are not only related to the veil, and considering it as such would reduce the grievances faced by many people, including minorities, especially women.”
And she stressed the need for the international media to continue covering those protests, “until we see whether it will lead to changes in the moral police’s treatment of people.”