Iran testing new strategies to soothe an angry public?

With the recent return of banned students and professors to universities and the new president's intention to curb harassment of women by the morality police, Tehran could be signaling the will to placate its critics.

A heated debate unfolded earlier this week in Iran over statements by the new reform-oriented president about reining in the morality police. In his first press conference since taking office six weeks ago, President Masoud Pezeshkian said he would work to ensure that authorities no longer harasses women over the wearing of the compulsory hijab.

"Are you still being harassed?" he asked a female journalist who was standing behind the microphone wearing a loose headscarf. She reported taking detours and making evasive maneuvers to avoid being stopped by the morality police.

The exchange sparked a controversial debate online and in political circles, with Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, chief justice of the Supreme Court, criticizing Pezeshkian's words

"Mr. President, you are asking whether the morality police still exist and interfere? The real question should be the inappropriate wearing of the journalist's hijab and the values that must not be violated," he said.

A conservative parliamentarian also warned Pezeshkian against such statements, saying "it is hard to believe the president wants to admonish the morality police."

Iran's women's movement 'can no longer be pushed back'

Iranian women, some of whom are active on social networks under their real names, reacted with anger. Since the tragic death of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody two years ago, many have refused to wear a headscarf in public.

"Doesn't the president know what we are confronted with every day?" journalist Elahe Khosravi wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "After all the deaths, he asks whether the morality police are still harassing us?"

Like many Iranian women, she published a new photo of herself online before the second anniversary of Amini's death, taken in public without a headscarf, along with the message: "We are innumerable."

"President Pezeshkian and at least part of the political apparatus in Iran have recognized that the answer to the anger and deep dissatisfaction of the population does not lie in further violence. The developments of the last two years can be neither reversed nor halted," said sociologist Mehrdad Darvishpour, a professor at Malardalen University in Sweden who researches political changes in Iran.

"There is a strong women's movement in Iran that can no longer be pushed back. Since the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, many women have decided to oppose the compulsory headscarf. Despite massive repression over the past two years, they are resisting on a daily basis and their courage is spreading throughout society. Although the nationwide protests were brutally suppressed after Amini's death, they could flare up again any time."

Can the president bring about change?

Whether Pezeshkian can stop the morality police from harassing women will depend on more than his decisions alone. Officially, the squad is a subdivision of the Iranian police, which is subordinate to the Interior Ministry. Decisions on the tasks of the morality police are made by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, a central institution in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Its main task is to monitor and shape the country's cultural and educational policy, over which it wields significant influence.

The council is made up of government representatives, including the president and select ministers, as well as members appointed directly by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's head of state and chief religious authority. Members include representatives of the clergy, who insist on the preservation of what they see as Islamic values embodied by the headscarf and a dress code for women.

Despite these restrictions, the president, who is at the head of the administrative apparatus, does have a certain scope for action that could bring change.

Students, professors allowed back at universities

This has been seen by the case of professors and students dismissed in the wake of the nationwide demonstrations following Amini's death. Iran's new education minister recently announced that they would be allowed to return to the universities, and the University of Tehran rector responsible for many of these suspensions was also dismissed on September 18.

Motahare Goonei, a student who was arrested during the nationwide protests in 2022, announced on X this week that she would be allowed to continue her studies at the University of Tehran in the coming semester, thanks to the efforts of Health Minister Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi.

In 2022, Goonei was in her final semester and about to complete her doctorate in dentistry when she was banned from the faculty for five years for "sedition" and "inciting chaos." After her release, she campaigned for political prisoners and was arrested again. On bail since May 2024, she is now fighting for the return of all students.

"I also want to go back to university," Kasra Nouri told DW. A political activist and member of the Gonabadi Dervishes, an oppressed religious minority, he was unable to complete his master's degree in human rights at the University of Tehran. Due to his commitment to freedom of expression and peaceful assemblies, he has been arrested five times in the last 15 years and spent almost 10 years in prison.

"For me, it's not about a degree. I am fighting for the right to education for all people in Iran, regardless of their religion or political beliefs. Since my release, I have been looking for legal ways to pave the way for me and all other students who have been suspended due to their peaceful protests."

This article was originally written in German.