Violations have consequences
Iran now monitors compulsory headscarves with cameras
4/15/2023 3:33 p.m
The Iranian police have started installing cameras in public places to monitor the headscarf requirement. The aim is to discover, identify and warn women without a headscarf via SMS.
In Iran, the police are now enforcing the headscarf requirement with the help of video surveillance. The Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that anyone who violated the dress code would receive a warning via text message. The camera software does not make any mistakes, it said, citing the police. However, objections can be raised.
The newspaper “Etemad” had already reported on penal reforms for violations of Islamic dress codes at the beginning of January. At that time, among other things, there was talk of social hours, re-education courses, bans on leaving the country, employment restrictions and fines.
For months now, the notorious morality police, which used patrols to enforce headscarves, have almost completely disappeared from the streets. Many women in Iran’s metropolises no longer wear headscarves. At the beginning of April, the authorities announced that they would again enforce the regulations at universities more strictly. Students who do not comply with the law should therefore be excluded from the classroom.
More than six months after the start of the latest wave of protests in Iran, the country’s political and spiritual leaders remain under massive pressure. The autumn uprisings plunged the Islamic Republic into one of the worst crises in decades. The trigger was the death of the Iranian Kurd Jina Mahsa Amini in mid-September. She died in police custody after being arrested for breaking Islamic dress codes.
Under Sharia law, introduced in 1979 in the wake of the Islamic revolution, women are required to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothing to hide their figure. Violators face fines or arrest.