Cameras are being installed in public places in Iran to watch women as part of an intensifying campaign to crack down on dress codes.
As protests continue throughout the country and women continue to defy the mandatory dress code, Iranian police are installing cameras to identify and penalise women who don’t cover their hair.
Those who are caught unveiled will receive a “warning text messages as to the consequences”, police said in a statement.
The move is aimed at “preventing resistance against the hijab law”, with the statement adding that such resistance tarnishes the country’s spiritual image and spreads insecurity.
Police also called on owners of businesses to “seriously monitor the observance of societal norms with their diligent inspections”.
In Iran, women have been required to wear the hijab in public since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Those who don’t follow the dress code have faced public rebuke, fines, or arrest.
In a statement last month, Iran’s Interior Ministry described the veil as “one of the civilisational foundations of the Iranian nation” and urged citizens to confront unveiled women.
Despite this, a growing number of women have been ditching their hijabs and taking part in anti-government protests since the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.
Amini died in the custody of the morality police last September after she was detained for allegedly wearing a hijab “improperly”.
In the seven months since, videos of unveiled women resisting the morality police, burning their headscarves and cutting their hair have flooded social media.
Read the article by Brielle Burns in Mamamia.