In the streets of Iran, the authorities are setting up several “smart” cameras. They must be directed at women who do not wear the hijab. Using facial technology, the police will identify women who defy the country’s hijab mandate. It is the Iranian police who report on the new surveillance, which will start on Friday this week. Cameras on the streets of Tehran on April 10. Photo: ATTA KENARE / AFP Women on the streets of Tehran on April 9, 2023. Photo: WANA NEWS AGENCY / Reuters Women who do not cover their hair properly will receive a warning by SMS about the consequences, according to the police. The aim: To prevent “resistance to the law on hijab”, write Iranian police in a message quoted by Reuters. It has been mandatory to wear the hijab in Iran since the revolution in 1979. – Has less power now In September last year, 22-year-old Masha Amini died in the custody of the morality police, after being arrested for wearing the hijab in the wrong way. Masha Amini died on 16 September 2022. Photo: WANA NEWS AGENCY / Reuters The death led to the biggest protests in Iran in over 40 years. Women and girls have been at the forefront with the slogan “women, life, freedom”. According to Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, head of the organization Human Rights Council, it has become relatively common to see women with their hair loose on the streets of Iran. – In cities all over Iran, women walk with visible hair and also without the hijab. We have not seen that since 1980 and it is a clear protest against the regime, says Amiry-Moghaddam to news. There have been several reports of attacks against women without the hijab. Last week, two women were arrested after a man threw yoghurt at them, probably because they were not wearing a hijab. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam Photo: PETTER BERNTSEN / AFP Amiry-Moghaddam believes the cameras are a sign of weakness from the authoritarian regime. – If they had had the opportunity to force the women as before, through physical attacks and arrests, they would have done so. But they don’t have the power to impose the hijab now, and they know that, says Amiry-Moghaddam. Read also Important for the regime Iran established the so-called morality police in 2006. After the violent protests this autumn and winter, it was shut down in November last year. But the law requiring women to wear the hijab remains. In the message from the police, published on Iran’s news agency, it is stated that women without the hijab will be identified by so-called smart cameras. Those who break the hijab law will then receive warnings. They do not write what kind of consequences the offense will have. According to Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, this could mean high fines, arrest or losing your job. He believes the regime no longer dares to attack women in the streets, as they did before. – They do not have the power to enforce the rules physically as they did before. Therefore, they use more creative methods now. They are afraid of more large protests, says Amiry-Moghaddam. Iran There are over 85 million inhabitants in Iran. Most are Persian, but Turkmen, Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis, Armenians and other ethnic groups are also represented in the population. The highest religious leader in the country is also head of state for life. Right now, the leader is 83-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who took over after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death in 1989. Ruled according to a very strict Shiite interpretation of the Koran. Dancing, physical contact in public, contraceptives and music are prohibited, among other things. Iranian law gives men the right to decide over the women in their lives – whether they should be allowed to work, travel, get an education and get a passport. Women are also subject to strict dress codes, including the hijab requirement. The Revolutionary Guard was founded by Khomeini in 1979, and is considered one of the most powerful units in the Iranian defense. It has a militia of volunteers, basij, who help control the population on the farm’s behalf. The country is regularly accused of human rights violations against ethnic groups, women and the rest of the population by civil society and authorities worldwide. In connection with the demonstrations, several sanctions have been imposed by, among others, the EU. The UN Commissioner for Human Rights is among those who have criticized how Iran has cracked down on the demonstrations this autumn, and the country has been kicked out of the UN Women’s Commission. The economy and population in Iran have long been affected by sanctions from the US and other countries. Sanctions were lifted from 2015 through the international nuclear agreement, which partially collapsed when the US withdrew from the agreement in 2018. New negotiations have so far not led. For years, Iran has been in conflict with the outside world because of the country’s nuclear program, which according to Iran has exclusively peaceful purposes. Sources: World Bank, Human Rights Watch, NTB, Time Magazine May be unwise Thousands of protesters have been arrested and four have been executed in the nationwide protests that have been ongoing since August 2022. According to human rights organizations, several hundred protesters, many of them teenagers, have been killed. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi recently reiterated that Iranian women must wear the hijab. He called it a religious necessity. Putin, Raisi and Erdogan hold hands during a summit in the summer of 2022. Photo: SERGEI SAVOSTYANOV / AFP At the same time, there seems to be disagreement among Iran’s rulers. Chief judge Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei says that punishing all women who do not wear the hijab is hardly wise. – Cultural problems must be solved with cultural means. If we want to solve these problems by arrest and imprisonment, the cost will only increase and it will not be solved in the desired efficient way, Mohseni-Ejei said last Friday, according to the BBC.
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Iran wants to film women without hijab – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
