Iran president criticises violence by morality cops

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani yesterday appeared to criticise the morality police after a video emerged of a violent encounter with a woman accused of breaching the country's strict dress code.

"Some say the way to promote virtue and prohibit vice is... by going to the street and grabbing people by the neck," said Rouhani in a wide-ranging speech to government officials carried on state television.

"Promoting virtue will not work through violence," he added.

On Thursday, mobile footage went viral on Iranian social media showing a female member of the morality police violently beating a woman whose headscarf was not sufficiently covering her hair.

The video prompted outrage on social media and the interior ministry vowed an investigation, but also implied the woman may have provoked the violence by swearing at the police.