Iran: disbanding of the morality police?
According to Iranian state media, which cite the country's attorney general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, the Iranian morality police is being disbanded. The morality police are blamed for the death of Mahsa Amini, which sparked nationwide protests in Iran. Commentators doubt that this will appease the protesters, who have long since been calling for the Ayatollahs' regime to be overthrown.
Just a cosmetic measure
ABC fears that little action will follow the announcement:
“It is a response to the unstoppable perseverance of the demonstrations. ... However, the Iranian prosecution has already made it clear that the judiciary will continue to work to uphold the existing modesty rules in the public sphere. As long as the repressive penal framework of the Ayatollahs' regime is not dismantled, which is based on a brutal, medieval, Sharia-oriented strictness, the abolition of the morality police will be of little use. ... The announcement seems more like an attempt to appease the protests while ensuring that everything basically stays the same.”
The people will want more
The Daily Telegraph doubts this will stop the protests:
“Scrapping the morality police may not have the results that the ayatollahs desire. Once protesters, led by women, many of whom have burned their head coverings, are granted a taste of the freedom they so desire, they may well demand more, rather than return home satisfied. ... Once protests become severe, dictators always face the same dilemma: crack down and provoke a worse response, or take your boot off the people and risk them jumping up to knock you down. If it were to find itself in this situation, Iran's theocracy would have only itself to blame.”
The West must take action
Now more than ever, unwavering support is needed for the protests in Iran demanding freedom and democracy and an end to the dictatorship of the Islamic Republic, admonishes La Repubblica:
“Supporting this uprising is of strategic interest to the entire West in the face of an Iran that is not only killing its own youth but also exporting instability and terrorism throughout the Middle East and killing civilians in the cities of Ukraine with its drones. What is needed is a change of pace in the political and diplomatic action of the entire West, underpinned by the firm belief that regime change in Iran is a concrete possibility.”