Iran more and more depends on electronic surveillance and the general public to tell on women refusing to put on the nation’s necessary headscarf in public, whilst hard-liners push for harsher penalties for these protesting the legislation, a United Nations report launched on Friday discovered.
The findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran come after it decided final yr that the nation’s theocracy was accountable for the “physical violence” that led to the dying of Mahsa Amini. Her dying led to nationwide protests in opposition to the nation’s necessary hijab legal guidelines and the general public disobedience in opposition to them that continues even right this moment, regardless of the risk of violent arrest and imprisonment.
“Two and a half years after the protests began in September 2022, women and girls in Iran continue to face systematic discrimination, in law and in practice, that permeates all aspects of their lives, particularly with respect to the enforcement of the mandatory hijab,” the report stated.
“The state is increasingly reliant on state-sponsored vigilantism in an apparent effort to enlist businesses and private individuals in hijab compliance, portraying it as a civic responsibility.
Iran’s mission to the U.N. in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the findings of the 20-page report.
In it, U.N. investigators outline how Iran increasingly relies on electronic surveillance. Among the efforts include Iranian officials deploying “aerial drone surveillance” to observe women in public locations. At Tehran’s Amirkabir University, authorities put in facial recognition software program at its entrance gate to additionally discover women not sporting the hijab, it stated.
Surveillance cameras on Iran’s main roadways are also believed to be concerned in looking for uncovered women. U.N. investigators stated they obtained the “Nazer” cell phone app supplied by Iranian police, which permits the general public to report on uncovered women in automobiles, together with ambulances, buses, metro vehicles and taxis.
“Users may add the location, date, time and the license plate number of the vehicle in which the alleged mandatory hijab infraction occurred, which then ‘flags’ the vehicle online, alerting the police,” the report stated. “It then triggers a text message (in real-time) to the registered owner of the vehicle, warning them that they had been found in violation of the mandatory hijab laws, and that their vehicles would be impounded for ignoring these warnings.”
Those textual content messages have led to harmful conditions. In July 2024, cops shot and paralysed a lady who activists say had acquired such a message and was fleeing a checkpoint close to the Caspian Sea.
Amini’s dying sparked months of protests and a safety crackdown that killed greater than 500 individuals and led to the detention of greater than 22,000. After the mass demonstrations, police dialled down enforcement of hijab legal guidelines, however it ramped up once more in April 2024 underneath what authorities referred to as the Noor — or “Light” — Plan. At least 618 women have been arrested underneath the Noor Plan, U.N. stated, citing an area human rights activist group in Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran executed no less than 938 individuals final yr, a threefold improve from 2021, the U.N. stated. While many have been convicted of drug expenses, the report stated the executions “indicate a nexus with the overall repression of dissent in this period.”
As Iran continues its crackdown on the hijab, it additionally faces an financial disaster over U.S. sanctions on account of its quickly advancing nuclear program. While U.S. President Donald Trump has referred to as for new negotiations, Iran has but to answer a letter he despatched to its 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Social unrest, coupled with the financial woes, stays a priority for Iran’s theocracy.
Published – March 15, 2025 12:02 pm IST
