Iran’s new president has mentioned that morality police will now not “hassle” ladies over the carrying of the obligatory hijab headband, days after the UN warned ladies have been nonetheless being violently punished for breaking the strict costume code.
Masoud Pezeshkian’s feedback got here on the second anniversary of the loss of life in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for allegedly not carrying the hijab correctly, sparking nationwide protests.
The UN final week mentioned Iran’s authorities had “intensified efforts” since that interval to suppress ladies’s rights and crush any final vestiges of activism.
However on Monday, Pezeshkian mentioned that the regime’s morality police ought to now not be confronting ladies on the road.
Pezeshkian, who turned president after his predecessor died in a helicopter crash, is seen as a probably reformist chief.
He was responding to questions from a feminine reporter who mentioned she had taken detours en path to the press convention to keep away from police vans. She was carrying her head scarf loosely with some hair displaying.
When requested by Pezeshkian if the police have been nonetheless on the streets she confirmed that was the case.
In response he mentioned: “The morality police weren’t presupposed to confront [women]. I’ll comply with up so they do not hassle [them]”.
His feedback have been broadcast stay on main state TV networks, together with rolling information channel IRINN. The clip of the dialog with the feminine journalist has since gone viral on-line.
It was Pezeshkian’s first press convention since coming into workplace in July, changing the ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi.
Throughout his election marketing campaign he pledged to oppose police patrols implementing the obligatory hijab headband. He has additionally vowed to ease a few of the nation’s long-standing web controls.
Iran stepped up surveillance of social media following the nationwide women-led anti-establishment protests in 2022.
Indicators of a probably extra relaxed angle to the nation’s strict costume code for girls have been current at Pezeshkian’s press convention on Monday, the place some feminine journalists wore free head coverings.
This was a noticeable departure from earlier official occasions the place feminine journalists are required to seem in full hijab, BBC Monitoring reported.
However the UN’s newest fact-finding mission within the nation says ladies “nonetheless stay in a system that relegates them to second class residents”.
In its report launched final week, the UN mentioned: “State authorities have expanded repressive measures and insurance policies to additional deprive ladies and women of their basic rights.”
It famous the federal government had “enhanced surveillance of hijab compliance” in each private and non-private environments whereas additionally endorsing an escalation in violence in punishing ladies and women who break the foundations.
“Safety forces have additional escalated pre-existing patterns of bodily violence, together with beating, kicking, and slapping ladies and women who’re perceived as failing to adjust to the obligatory hijab legal guidelines and rules,” the UN mentioned.
It mentioned authorities had additionally more and more invoked the usage of the loss of life penalty towards ladies activists and “scaled up” executions of those that had expressed solidarity with the 2022 protests referred to as the Girl, Life, Freedom motion.
The UN mission additionally famous {that a} “Hijab and Chastity” invoice was within the last levels of approval earlier than Iran’s Guardian Council and could possibly be finalised imminently.
“The Invoice gives for harsher penalties for girls who don’t put on the obligatory hijab, together with exorbitant monetary fines, longer jail sentences, restrictions on work and academic alternatives, and bans on journey,” the UN investigators mentioned.