In a historic decision to withdraw, authorities in Iran yesterday Saturday asked the judiciary and parliament to review a 1983 law by Ayatollah Khomeini[/B] on the compulsory wearing of the headscarf in order to find a way out of the protest movement that has erupted for more than two months in the country.
Iran is facing daily protests following the death on 16 September of Mahsha Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, three days after she was arrested by vice police for not wearing her headscarf properly.
Since then, Iranian women have taken to the streets and some have removed or burned their headscarves in public.
A total of 448 protesters have been killed since the protests began, according to the Norway-based non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council said yesterday that "more than 200 people", civilians and members of law enforcement forces, had been killed, while on Monday General Amirali Hazizadeh of the Revolutionary Guards had said more than 300 people had been killed.
In addition, thousands of people have been arrested. Yesterday another film actress, Mitra Hazar, was arrested at her home for recently posting a video on her Instagram account of the October protests in Berlin in solidarity with the movement in Iran.
Mandila: A sensitive issue
Yesterday Saturday, Iran's Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said that "parliament and the judicial authorities are working" on the issue of making the headscarf compulsory, without specifying whether the law might be amended.
The issue is particularly sensitive in Iran, with two opposing camps in conflict: that of conservatives who insist on the 1983 law and that of progressives who want women to be able to choose whether or not to wear the headscarf.
The headscarf became compulsory in Iran four years after the 1979 Islamic revolution. The vice police were created to "spread the culture of modesty and use of the headscarf."
According to the 1983 law, women in Iran - local and foreign, regardless of religion, must wear a headscarf and loose clothing in public.
Since 5 July, a new law "on the headscarf and modesty in the country", promoted by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, imposed new restrictions on women: the headscarf must cover not only their hair, but also their necks and shoulders.
However, during a press conference held yesterday in Tehran, Raisi appeared to be open to possible changes in the legislation.
They defied the authorities
After the death of Amini and the protests that followed, more and more women started walking around without a headscarf, especially in the north of Tehran.
On 24 September, a week after the protests began, the main reformist party in Iran called on the authorities to remove the compulsory wearing of the headscarf.
The People's Union of Islamic Iran, founded by close associates of reformist former president Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005), announced that it had "asked" the authorities "to prepare legal instruments that will pave the way towards the cancellation of the mandatory headscarf legislation," according to a party statement in late September.
The party also asked Iranian authorities to "formally announce the end of the vice police" and "allow peaceful demonstrations."
Source: Cyprus Times
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