Pezeshkian, who turned president after his predecessor died in a helicopter crash, is seen as a probably reformist chief.
He was responding to questions from a feminine reporter who stated she had taken detours en path to the press convention to keep away from police vans. She was carrying her head scarf loosely with some hair displaying.
When requested by Pezeshkian if the police have been nonetheless on the streets she confirmed that was the case.
In response he stated: “The morality police weren’t purported to confront [women]. I’ll comply with up so they do not hassle [them]”.
His feedback have been broadcast stay on main state TV networks, together with rolling information channel IRINN. The clip of the dialog with the feminine journalist has since gone viral on-line.
It was Pezeshkian’s first press convention since coming into workplace in July, changing the ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi.
Throughout his election marketing campaign he pledged to oppose police patrols implementing the obligatory hijab scarf. He has additionally vowed to ease a number of the nation’s long-standing web controls.
Iran stepped up surveillance of social media following the nationwide women-led anti-establishment protests in 2022.
Indicators of a probably extra relaxed angle to the nation’s strict gown code for girls have been current at Pezeshkian’s press convention on Monday, the place some feminine journalists wore unfastened head coverings.
This was a noticeable departure from earlier official occasions the place feminine journalists are required to look in full hijab, BBC Monitoring reported.
However the UN’s newest fact-finding mission within the nation says ladies “nonetheless stay in a system that relegates them to second class residents”.
In its report launched final week,, exterior the UN stated: “State authorities have expanded repressive measures and insurance policies to additional deprive ladies and ladies of their basic rights.”
It famous the federal government had “enhanced surveillance of hijab compliance” in each private and non-private environments whereas additionally endorsing an escalation in violence in punishing ladies and ladies who break the principles.
“Safety forces have additional escalated pre-existing patterns of bodily violence, together with beating, kicking, and slapping ladies and ladies who’re perceived as failing to adjust to the obligatory hijab legal guidelines and rules,” the UN stated.
It stated authorities had additionally more and more invoked using the loss of life penalty in opposition to ladies activists and “scaled up” executions of those that had expressed solidarity with the 2022 protests often known as the Girl, Life, Freedom motion.
The UN mission additionally famous {that a} “Hijab and Chastity” invoice was within the remaining phases of approval earlier than Iran’s Guardian Council and might be finalised imminently.
“The Invoice offers for harsher penalties for girls who don’t put on the obligatory hijab, together with exorbitant monetary fines, longer jail sentences, restrictions on work and academic alternatives, and bans on journey,” the UN investigators stated.