(Tehran) Iran’s parliament and judiciary are working on the question of mandatory veiling for women, the public prosecutor announced, promising quick results, without specifying in which direction the law could be modified.
Iran has been in turmoil since the death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdistan Mahza Amini, who died on September 16 after being arrested by morality police for violating the Islamic Republic’s dress code, which requires women to wear the veil to visitors.
Since then, Iranian women have led protests against the government, chanting slogans, removing and burning their headscarves.
The Supreme National Security Council said on Saturday that “more than 200 people” had been killed in the two-and-a-half-month protests. According to the official IRNA agency, the toll includes “deaths of civilians and security forces, clashes between rival groups, rioters and victims of clashes between counter-revolutionary and separatist groups”.
Last Monday, General Amirali Hajizadeh of the Revolutionary Guards announced that more than 300 people had died.
The council further estimates the amount of damage to be “thousands of billions of riyals” (1 dollar equals 31,500 riyals).
“Parliament and the Judiciary are working on this issue,” Attorney General Mohammad Zafar Montazeri was quoted as saying by Isna news agency on Friday. He did not specify what could be changed in the law, especially since ultra-conservative President Ibrahim Raisi has already imposed new dress codes.
The veil was made compulsory in Iran in 1983, four years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Attorney General has announced the upcoming date for the examination results related to compulsory wearing of hijab. “For example, we held a meeting with the parliament’s culture committee on Wednesday and we will see the results in a week or two,” he said in a speech in Qom, south of Tehran.
This ultra-conservative demanded action from administrative bodies in the fight against the “families of martyrs” and “hawzah” (seminars for the study of Shiite Islamic values), in the fight against disobedience to wearing the veil.
For his part, President Raisi said during a conference in Tehran on Saturday: “Our constitution contains solid and immutable values and principles. […] But there are mechanisms for implementing the Constitution, which can be changed.
After Mahza Amini’s death and the protests that followed, a growing number of women are covering their heads, especially in Tehran’s upscale north.
