Morality Police Disbanded in Iran

Iranian officials signaled over the weekend it had shut down the country's guidance patrol, informally known as the morality police, amid ongoing protests sparked by the September death of a young woman while in custody. It marks the most significant concession by the government, which also said hijab laws would be reevaluated, since demonstrations began. Led primarily by women and younger Iranians, the protests began after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died under mysterious circumstances after reportedly being stopped in Tehran for not wearing a hijab (see overview). In the following weeks, the demonstration's spread from Amini's Kurdish home city of Saqqez to dozens of cities across Iran, with almost 450 people killed and 18,000 arrested by security forces. Observers have called the demonstrations the biggest challenge to the country's theocratic regime since the 1979 revolution, with protests largely spanning geography, social class, and age. See photos of the crowds here.