Tehran:
Iran’s Attorney General said parliament, judiciary and top cultural bodies are investigating the issue of compulsory headscarves and results are expected to be announced within 15 days.
Speaking on Thursday, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said consultations were ongoing between parliament, the judiciary and the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution, with the judiciary in the process of drafting a bill.
“We are working swiftly on the headscarf issue and doing our best to develop sensible solutions to address this traumatic phenomenon for all.
Iran has been rocked by widespread protests in recent months, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Masa Amini, who was detained by the country’s morality police in September.
Amini died after being detained for not adhering to the mandatory Islamic dress code.
As nationwide protests have recently been marred by violence, authorities have swiftly begun to consider the issue of mandatory dress codes and the possibility of reforming the moral police.
Montazelli said the “justice and administration” department would welcome any ideas that would help manage the crisis surrounding headscarves and related issues, and hinted at possible reforms to the modus operandi of the moral police.
Over 1,000 arrested and hundreds killed
He further said many of those arrested at the protests are in need of “counseling and cultural activities,” adding that religious schools have an important role to play and the judiciary will support them.
More than 1,000 people were reportedly arrested for participating in the protests, which authorities called “foreign-sponsored riots.”
Also in the first such acknowledgment, the senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, General Amirali Hajizadeh, said earlier this week that more than 300 people had been killed since protests erupted in mid-September. An independent watchdog puts the number between 400 and 500.
For the first time since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Montazeri said that “global arrogance has mobilized a large and coordinated group against Iran”, referring to the United States and Israel.
The United States and the European Union have imposed numerous sanctions against Iranian officials and government agencies for what they call “restraining protests.”
Last week, the UN Human Rights Council also condemned the crackdown on the protests and agreed to set up an international fact-finding mission to examine the country’s response to widespread protests. Iran condemned the move and refused to cooperate.
Meanwhile, talks over the 2015 nuclear deal have effectively been put on the backburner, and growing fears are fueling tensions between Iran and the United States.
