You Can’t Reform the Morality Police

A lie can go halfway around the world, according to the adage, before the truth has managed to get its trousers on. Last weekend provided one case in point, strangely appropriate to a saying about getting properly dressed before going out. Last weekend, at a press conference in the holy city of Qom, Iran’s attorney general Mohammad Jafar Montazeri mentioned that his country’s Guidance Patrol—which harasses unveiled women—had been disbanded. News stories proliferated, and for a moment it looked like the Iranians demonstrating against their government since August had won a minor victory.

The excitement was premature. Montazeri doesn’t have the power to disband the Guidance Patrol. His comments didn’t even. Then, if a woman failed to heed these warnings, “the bank account of the person who unveiled may be blocked.”