Iran's Main Reformist Party Urges End to Mandatory Dress Code

Women in Tehran on Tuesday. (EPA)
Women in Tehran on Tuesday. (EPA)
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Iran's Main Reformist Party Urges End to Mandatory Dress Code

Women in Tehran on Tuesday. (EPA)
Women in Tehran on Tuesday. (EPA)

Iran's main reformist party called Saturday for an end to the mandatory dress code for women in force since 1983, after eight straight nights of protests.

The Union of Islamic Iran People's Party also called for the winding down of the morality police charged with enforcing the code following the death in their custody of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16.

The party, which is led by former aides of reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami who oversaw a thaw with the West between 1997 and 2005, called on the authorities to "prepare the legal elements necessary for the repeal of the law on mandatory hijab".

The party, which remains legal but is firmly outside the corridors of power, said Iran should announce an "official end to the activities of the morality police" and "authorize peaceful demonstrations."

It said an "impartial commission" should be set up to investigate the circumstances of Amini's death and called for the "immediate release of people recently detained".

At least 35 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the protests that erupted after Amini's death, according to official figures. Hundreds more have been arrested, including reformist journalists and activists as well as demonstrators.

Under the law adopted in 1983, four years after Iran's revolution, all women, regardless of faith or nationality, must conceal their hair with a headscarf in public and wear loose-fitting trousers under their coats.

The code has been widely skirted for decades, particularly in the major cities, but there have been periodic crackdowns.



Trump Envoy Arrives in Kyiv as US Pledges Patriot Missiles to Ukraine

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
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Trump Envoy Arrives in Kyiv as US Pledges Patriot Missiles to Ukraine

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

US President Donald Trump´s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, arrived in Kyiv on Monday, a senior Ukrainian official said, as anticipation grew over a possible shift in the Trump administration´s policy on the more than three-year war.

Trump last week teased that he would make a "major statement" on Russia on Monday. Trump made quickly stopping the war one of his diplomatic priorities, and he has increasingly expressed frustration about Russian President Vladimir Putin´s unbudging stance on US-led peace efforts.

Trump has long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin and after taking office in January repeatedly said that Russia was more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal. At the same time, Trump accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war and called him a "dictator without elections”, AFP said.

But Russia´s relentless onslaught against civilian areas of Ukraine wore down Trump´s patience. In April, Trump urged Putin to "STOP!" launching deadly barrages on Kyiv, and the following month said in a social media post that the Russian leader " has gone absolutely CRAZY!" as the bombardments continued.

"I am very disappointed with President Putin, I thought he was somebody that meant what he said," Trump said late Sunday. "He´ll talk so beautifully and then he´ll bomb people at night. We don´t like that."

Trump confirmed the US is sending Ukraine badly needed US-made Patriot air defense missiles to help it fend off Russia´s intensifying aerial attacks.

Trump said that the European Union will pay the US for the "various pieces of very sophisticated" weaponry it is sending.

However, the EU is not allowed under its treaties to buy weapons. EU member countries are buying and sending weapons to Ukraine, just as NATO member countries are buying and sending weapons. EU countries set up the European Peace Facility so that countries which supply arms to Ukraine could be refunded to backfill their own stocks.

Russia has pounded Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, with hundreds of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles that Ukraine's air defenses are struggling to counter. June brought the highest monthly civilian casualties of the past three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 wounded, the UN human rights mission in Ukraine said Thursday. Russia launched 10 times more drones and missiles in June than in the same month last year, it said.

That has happened at the same time as Russia's bigger army is making a new effort to drive back Ukrainian defenders on parts of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

A top ally of Trump, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said Sunday that the conflict is nearing an inflection point as Trump shows growing interest in helping Ukraine fight back against Russia's full-scale invasion. It´s a cause that Trump had previously dismissed as being a waste of US taxpayer money.

"In the coming days, you´ll see weapons flowing at a record level to help Ukraine defend themselves," Graham said on CBS´ "Face the Nation." He added: "One of the biggest miscalculations (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has made is to play Trump. And you just watch, in the coming days and weeks, there´s going to be a massive effort to get Putin to the table."

Kirill Dmitriev, Putin´s envoy for international investment, dismissed what he said were efforts to drive a wedge between Moscow and Washington.

"Constructive dialogue between Russia and the United States is more effective than doomed-to-fail attempts at pressure," Dmitriev said in a post on Telegram. "This dialogue will continue, despite titanic efforts to disrupt it by all possible means."

"Equal dialogue, mutual respect, realism and economic cooperation are the foundations of global security," he added, echoing comments by Putin.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte was due in Washington on Monday and Tuesday. He planned to hold talks with Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as members of Congress.

Talks during Kellogg´s visit to Kyiv will cover "defense, strengthening security, weapons, sanctions, protection of our people and enhancing cooperation between Ukraine and the United States," said the head of Ukraine´s presidential office, Andrii Yermak.

"Russia does not want a cease fire. Peace through strength is President Donald Trump´s principle, and we support this approach," Yermak said.

Russian troops conducted a combined aerial strike at Shostka, in the northern Sumy region of Ukraine, using glide bombs and drones early Monday morning, killing two people, the regional prosecutor´s office said. Four others were injured, including a 7-year-old, it said.

Overnight from Sunday to Monday, Russia fired four S-300/400 missiles and 136 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine, the air force said. It said that 61 drones were intercepted and 47 more were either jammed or lost from radars mid-flight.

The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its air defenses downed 11 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions on the border with Ukraine, as well as over the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.