Iran: Police To Use Smart Cameras To Warn, Nab Women Without Veils

In a further attempt to curtail and suppress the rising women’s movement in Iran against the country’s compulsory dress code, the Iran police on Saturday said that they plan to use “smart" technology in public places to identify and then penalize unveiled women.

An official statement said the force would “take action to identify norm-breaking people by using tools and smart cameras in public places and thoroughfares". After identification, the police will send “warning messages to the violators of the hijab law" to “the legal consequences of repeating this crime".

Resistance against hijab law in Iran, with women ditching their veils, grew since the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman while in the custody of the morality police in September 2022. Mahsa Amini was detained for allegedly violating the hijab rule. Security forces violently put down the protests following her death.

The surveillance move to identify and nab unveiled women is aimed at “preventing resistance against the hijab law,” said the statement, carried by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency and other state media, adding that such resistance tarnishes Iran's spiritual image and spreads insecurity.