The announcement of the dissolution of the morality police in Iran at the origin of the protest movement which has hit the Islamic Republic for more than two and a half months was ignored on Monday by the conservative press, only four reform dailies mentioning it to Featured.
Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, announced on Saturday evening at a conference in Qom, the holy city of Shiism west of Tehran, that “the morality police […] was abolished by those who created it”.
The announcement comes as a gesture towards protesters who have taken to the streets to express their anger since the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman arrested three days earlier by the vice police for disobeying dress code.
But in the Iranian press on Monday, only four reformist newspapers mention the end of this religious police created in the early 2000s to “spread the culture of the decency of the Islamic veil”.
“After 80 days of protests caused by the morality police, the Attorney General announces its abolition”, writes the reform daily Sazandegi titled “the end of the morality police”.
Sharq, another reformist daily, is skeptical: “Is this the end of the patrols? “to enforce the dress code which includes the wearing of the veil, questions the newspaper in one.
“While the Attorney General claimed that the vice police were abolished, the police public relations department refused to confirm this abolition”, underlines Sharq.
To the newspaper which questioned him by telephone to react to the statements of the general prosecutor, Colonel Ali Sabahi, head of public relations of the Tehran police, replied: “Don’t even mention that you called us. The time is not right for this kind of discussion […] and the police will talk about it when it is appropriate”.
The Reform Daily Arman Melli is also skeptical, captioning: “Is this the end of the morality police? “. And after the prosecutor’s announcement, “A change in favor of women? “, wonders for its part the reformist daily Ham Mihan. “The judicial authority made a statement, but no other authority announced the dissolution of the morality police”, underlines the newspaper.