Iran denies abolishing morality police, reportedly destroys female athlete's family home because she competed without headscarf

Just a day after reports came out across the world that Iran was scrapping its "morality police," responsible for enforcing certain tenets of Sharia law, such as the country's hijab policy, Iranian state media is denying the force is being disbanded.

Now, after Iranian Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri claimed, "Morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary," Iran's state broadcaster claims those comments were misinterpreted and that the morality police continue to operate.

Despite the attorney general being quoted as saying the morality police had been "abolished from the same place it was launched," state television Al-Alam says that the only thing that can be confirmed from the comments is that the judiciary system operates as a separate entity from the morality police.

The broadcaster appeared to mockingly claim that "foreign media" had simply misinterpreted Iran as "retreating" from the issue of the "hijab" and "modesty." As CNN reports, the newscast went on to say that "no official of the Islamic Republic of Iran has said that the Guidance Patrol has been shut” and that the idea that the force was shut down "due to the recent riots” is false.

Iran has seen large-scale protests lately, following international outcry over Mahsa Amini, a woman who died in state custody in September. As a result, over 14,000 protesters have been arrested, with authorities even threatening the lives of soccer players' families over athlete protests at the World Cup.

This comes in wake of the Iranian state destroying the villa belonging to the family of a female rock climber who competed in a tournament abroad without wearing a headscarf. As reported by the Daily Mail, Elnaz Rekabi and her brother were both reportedly arrested upon the rock climber's return to Iran after she competed in South Korea in the women's boulder finals of the Asian Championships of the International Federation of Sport Climbing in Seoul.

However, also according the Daily Mail, local media outlet Tasnim News reports that the house was actually demolished by Iranian authorities before the competition for having the incorrect construction permit, not an act of retaliation. Rekabi had previously claimed her competing without a hijab was unintentional, posting an apology video online.

Rekabi wore a black baseball hat and a hoodie that covered her hair as she answered questions from reporters at the airport, despite competing in just a headband in South Korea.