Iran's 'morality police' done away with after two months of anti-hijab protest

Iran's morality police have been abolished after a two months long women-led protest triggered by the arrest and death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for allegedly violating the country's strict female dress code, said local media on Sunday. 

"Morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary" and have been abolished, Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. The Attorney General's comment came as a reply to a participant in a religious conference, who asked "why the morality police were being shut down", says reports. 

Formally known as the Gasht-e Ershad or "Guidance Patrol", the morality police, was established to "spread the culture of modesty and hijab", the mandatory female head covering under the hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The unit started patrols in 2006. 

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The announcement for the abolition of morality police came a day after Montazeri said that "both parliament and the judiciary are working (on the issue)" of whether the law requiring women to cover their heads needs to be changed.

The mandatory hijab rule was established in Iran four years after the 1979 revolution that established the Islamic Republic of Iran and overthrew the US-backed monarchy.