Iran’s ‘morality police’ use CCTV to target one million women for not wearing headscarves

Iran is deploying mass surveillance tactics, including CCTV tracking, to crack down on women who defy compulsory veiling, human rights activists have warned. Between April and June, Iranian police sent more than one million text warning messages to women seen on camera without a headscarf in their cars, Amnesty International said in an analysis of official government data.

“The first time I received a warning for not wearing a headscarf while driving, I was passing through an intersection when a camera captured a photo and I immediately received a warning text message,” Maryam, a 52-year-old woman from Esfahan province, told Amnesty. “The second time, I had done some shopping, and as I was bringing the bags into the car, my scarf fell off, and I received a message noting that due to violating compulsory veiling laws, my car had been subjected to ‘systematic impoundment’ for a period of 15 days.”

Police also issued 133,174 texts ordering women to stop using their vehicles, confiscated 2,000 cars, and referred more than 4,000 “repeat offenders” to the judiciary . . . Other new tactics to police and punish women and girls include the confiscation of cars and job dismissals, while in one case a woman was ordered to wash corpses in a morgue.

In December, in an apparent concession to the protesters, Iran reduced the role of the country’s morality police. But on July 16, a police spokesperson announced the return of police patrols to enforce compulsory veiling and threatened legal action against women and girls seen in public without headscarves.

Officials and state media outlets have also begun to refer to women and girls who defy measures as a “virus”

In late May, in an attempt to further codify and intensify the crackdown on headscarves, the judicial and executive authorities presented a bill to “support the culture of chastity and hijab” to parliament.  Under this proposed legislation, women and girls who appear without headscarves in public spaces and on social media, or who show “nakedness of a body part or wear thin or tight clothes”, will face a catalogue of penalties.