Iran wants to film women without veils - NRK Urix

On the streets of Iran, the authorities are placing several “smart” cameras.

It should be directed at women who don’t wear hijab.

Using facial technology, the police will identify women who are defying the country’s hijab mandate.

And it is the Iranian police who report on the new surveillance, which will begin on Friday this week.

According to the police, women who do not cover their hair properly will receive an SMS warning about the consequences.

The goal: to prevent “resistance to the hijab law,” as the Iranian police wrote in a message they transmitted Reuters.

Wearing the hijab has been compulsory in Iran since the revolution in 1979.

– He has less strength now

Last September, 22-year-old Masha Amini died in the custody of the morality police, after being arrested for improperly wearing a headscarf.

The death led to the largest protests in Iran in more than 40 years. Women and girls have been at the forefront of the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom”.

According to Mahmoud Amiri Moghaddam, head of the 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 veils. We haven’t seen that since 1980 and it’s a clear protest against the regime,” Amiri Moghadam told NRK.

There have been several reports attacks against women without a veil. Last week, two women were arrested after a man threw yogurt at them, possibly because they weren’t wearing a hijab.

Al-Amiri submitted He believes the cameras are a sign of weakness from the authoritarian regime.

If they had the opportunity to coerce women as before, through physical assaults and arrests, they would have done so. But my command is present they do not have the strength to impose the veil now, and they know it.

important to the system

Iran created the so-called morality police in 2006. After violent protests in the fall and winter, it was closed down last November. But the law requiring women to wear the veil remains.

And the police message, which was published on the Iranian news agency, stated that women who do not wear a headscarf will be identified through so-called smart cameras. Then those who break the hijab law will receive warnings.

They do not write what kind of consequences the crime will have.

According to Mahmoud Ameri Moghadam, this could mean high fines, arrest or losing your job.

It is believed that the regime no longer dares to attack women in the streets as they did before.

They don’t have the ability to physically enforce the rules like they once did. Therefore, they are using more creative methods now. Ameri Moghaddam says they fear more large protests.

Iran

There are more than 85 million people in Iran. Mostly Persians, but Turkmens, Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis, Armenians and other ethnic groups are also represented in the population.
The country’s highest religious leader is also the life head of state. At the moment, the leader is 83-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who took over after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.
He rules according to a strict Shiite interpretation of the Quran. Dancing, physical contact in public, contraceptives, and music, among others, are prohibited.
Iranian law gives men the right to decide about 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 veil requirements.
Khomeini established the Revolutionary Guard in 1979, and it is considered one of the most powerful units in Iran’s defense. It has a militia of volunteers, the Basij, who help control the population on behalf of the farm.
The country is regularly accused of human rights violations against ethnic groups, women and the rest of the population by civil society and authorities around the world.
In connection with the demonstrations, several sanctions were imposed by the European Union, among others. The UN human rights commissioner is among those who have criticized the way Iran cracked down on demonstrations this fall, expelling the country from the UN Women’s Commission.
Iran’s economy and population have long been affected by sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries. Sanctions were lifted as of 2015 through the international nuclear agreement, which partially collapsed when the United States withdrew from the agreement in 2018. There have been no new negotiations yet.
For years, Iran has been in conflict with the outside world over its nuclear programme, which according to Iran has only peaceful purposes.

Sources: World Bank, Human Rights Watch, NTB, Time magazine

It may be unwise

Thousands of protesters have been arrested and four executed in the nationwide protests since August 2022. Human rights organizations Several hundred protesters, many of them teenagers, were killed.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi recently confirmed that Iranian women must wear the hijab. He called it a religious necessity.

At the same time, there seems to be discord among the rulers of Iran. Chief Justice Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Eje says it is not wise to punish all women who do not wear the veil.

Cultural problems must be solved by cultural means. And Mohseni Ajei said last Friday, if we want to solve these problems with arrest and imprisonment, the cost will only increase and it will not be solved in the desired effective way. According to the BBC.