A senior Iranian official has questioned the state’s over-enforcement of the country’s compulsory hijab laws – following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody.
Ali Larijani, 65, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and former speaker of parliament, warned in an interview with Iran’s Ettela’at daily that a “rigid response” to the widespread protests that followed his death “is not the cure”. “.
The 22 year old died while in the custody of Iranvice police last month after he was detained for alleged violations of the country’s strict dress code.
Mr. Larijani is the first high-ranking politician to publicly call for a rethink of the government’s crackdown on women and girls who do not follow the Islamic dress code.
In an apparent break with the intransigent line displayed by the regime, he said in the interview: “The hijab has a cultural solution, it does not need decrees and referendums.
A portrait of Mahsa Amini is held at a rally in Washington calling for regime change in Iran. Photo: AP
“I appreciate the services of the police and the Basij [parliamentary militia]but this burden of encouraging hijab should not be left to them.
“Do not doubt that when a cultural phenomenon becomes widespread, a rigid response to it is not the cure.
“People and young people who take to the streets are our own children. In a family, if a child commits a crime, then we try to guide him to the right path, society needs more tolerance.”
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He noted that during the period of the Shah’s last reign before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the wearing of the hijab was not encouraged by the state but many women wore it voluntarily.
Mr. Larijani continued: “Islamic government means that people manage their own affairs. The same is true in terms of social justice. If affairs are run by the people, their talents will flourish.
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Iranian teenager ‘beaten to death’
He added: “The problem is that if in a society young people are not applying any of the Sharia rules correctly from an intellectual and social point of view, it is not 100% wrong.”
Ms. Amini, an Iranian Kurd, was arrested in Tehran on September 13 for wearing “inappropriate attire” and died three days later.
The Iranian government insists she was not abused, but her family say her body showed bruises and other signs of beatings.
Her death led young women to cut their hair and defiantly rip and wave their headscarves, leading protests that quickly spread across the country – and to other cities around the world, including London.
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The protests, which have called for the overthrow of the Iranian regime, have been met with harsh government repression, including beatings, arrests and killings of protesters.
Human rights groups say at least 201 people have been killed in Iran, along with hundreds injured and thousands arrested by security forces.
At least 20 members of the security forces were reportedly killed.
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