Moderate candidate in Iran criticizes headscarf policy
The moderate Iranian presidential candidate Massud Peseschkian has campaigned for votes by criticizing the headscarf policy. "I promise that I will stop this behavior that is happening to our daughters and sisters on the streets," said the former health minister in front of hundreds of supporters in Tehran on Sunday. Recently, the so-called guardians of morality have once again stepped up their efforts to ensure compliance with the headscarf requirement on the streets.
23.06.2024, 19:34
SDA
"I promise the teachers and students who were expelled from university for no reason that I will not allow this to happen again," he added. During the protests led by women in the fall of 2022, universities punished critical voices and expelled students who opposed the headscarf requirement, for example. He called for renewed trust between a possible moderate government and the population.
The Guardian Council, an Islamic supervisory body, has only approved six candidates for the election on June 28. Peseschkian is the only moderate candidate for the presidency. Among the conservative forces, parliamentary speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf and Said Jalili, former chief negotiator in the nuclear negotiations, are considered the most promising candidates. The new election follows the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19.
Many people in Iran are disillusioned in the face of political repression, an economic crisis and the failed attempts at reform in recent decades. They have lost faith in major domestic political change. In the fall of 2022, the death of the young Kurdish woman Jina Masa Amini sparked nationwide protests against the Islamic system of rule. Voter turnout in this year's parliamentary elections reached a record low of around 40 percent.
