Hijab: Iran uses cameras to catch defaulters

BBC claims that Iranian police have installed cameras in public places to identify exposed women.

Police stated ladies who didn’t cover their hair would receive “warning text messages as to the consequences,” according to the British news portal.

Police stated this would deter “hijab law resistance.”

Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman imprisoned for hijab violations, died in police detention last year, sparking protests.

Despite the risk of prosecution, many women in big cities have been removing their veils since Ms Amini’s death.

A police statement released by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency stated the system employed “smart” cameras and other methods to identify and transmit “documents and warning messages to the violators of the hijab law.”

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women must wear a hijab. Lawbreakers are fined or arrested.

Saturday’s police statement called the veil “one of the civilizational foundations of the Iranian nation” and encouraged business owners to comply with “diligent inspections”.
Public attacks against uncovered women are not unusual.

Last week, a video of a guy throwing yoghurt at two exposed ladies was widely shared online and the women were later jailed under the hijab law. His arrest followed.

Since December, thousands of Iranian demonstrators have been jailed and four executed, but hardliners want greater law enforcement.

Last Saturday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi underlined that hijab is a “religious necessity” for women.

Iran’s judicial director Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, however, warned on Friday that a sweeping crackdown may not be the best way to encourage women to respect the rules.

Cultural solutions must be cultural. If we seek to handle such problems by arresting and imprisoning, the expenditures will escalate and we will not see the desired effectiveness,” he said.