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Iran acid attacks put 'vice groups' on defensive

The acid attacks in Iran have prompted criticism of a proposed law that would provide legal protection to vigilante groups working to discourage "vice."
Iranian worshippers shout anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration by hardline group Ansar Hezbollah to protest against the social corruption and unIslamic outfits worn by women after Friday prayers ceremonies in Tehran, Iran April 28, 2006. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl - RTR1CVWE
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In response to a number of acid attacks on women in the city of Esfahan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered the Interior Ministry, Intelligence Ministry and Justice Ministry to pursue the case. Tehran's Friday Prayer leader Ayatollah Mohadi Kermani has also said that the attackers must be given the “maximum punishment.”

Protests erupted in Esfahan and the capital Tehran over the attacks, which left a number of young women disfigured. Some at these protests blamed the authorities for not protecting women from violence and supporting legislation that offers legal protection to vigilante "vice groups" engaged in the Islamic teaching of “enjoining good and forbidding wrong.”

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