Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that Iran's Moral Police will no longer "harass" women over the compulsory wearing of the hijab.

– The moral police should not clash with women. I will make sure that the police do not harass women, said Pezeshkian on the second anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahse Amini, who was arrested for illegally wearing a hijab.

The United Nations said last week that Iranian authorities had "stepped up efforts" to crack down on women's rights and crush activism following mass protests over Amini's death.

Pezeshkian took over from ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash. The new Iranian president is considered a potential reformer.

He also promised in the pre-election campaign that he would stop the so-called Iranian Morality Police from harassing women. But the main authority in Iran is the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who claims that "revelation (of female body parts) is forbidden both religiously and politically."

Amini, an Iranian woman of Kurdish origin, died in hospital on September 16, 2022, three days after she was arrested by morality police for disobeying Iran's strict dress code and taken to a "re-education center" where she was beaten. She was detained because she was wearing the hijab incorrectly, that is, her hair was visible.

Her death sparked months of protests, which turned into calls for rebellion against Ayatollah Khamenei and the theocratic government. The protests were held under the motto "Woman, life, freedom". Over 500 people died in the suppression of the protests, and more than 22.000 were detained.

An independent international UN fact-checking mission on Iran announced on March 18 this year that Amini's death was unlawful and caused by violence.

In the past period, an increasing number of Iranian women defy the authorities and go out on the street without a hijab.