Iranian authorities are installing cameras in public spaces and thoroughfares to identify and penalise unveiled women, the police said on Saturday, in an effort to further control the increasing number of women who are disobeying the mandatory dress code.
Violators will receive “warning text messages as to the consequences” when they have been identified, according to a statement from the police.
In a statement carried out by official media, it was stated that the move was intended to “prevent resistance against the hijab law,” adding that such defiance damages the nation’s spiritual reputation and sows unrest.
With the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in the morality police’s custody in September of last year, an increasing number of Iranian women have abandoned their hijabs. Mahsa Amini was held for purportedly disobeying the hijab rule. The uprising was severely put down by security forces.
Women are still frequently seen unveiled in malls, restaurants, shops, and on the streets around the country, risking arrest for breaching the required dress code. The morality police are being resisted in videos that have taken over social media.
Police urged company owners to “seriously monitor the observance of societal norms with their diligent inspections,” according to a statement released on Saturday.
Women in Iran are required to cover their hair and wear long, loose clothes to hide their figures under the Islamic Sharia law that was implemented following the 1979 revolution. Offenders have been subject to public censure, penalties, or arrest.
A statement from the Interior Ministry on March 30 stated that there would be no turning back on the subject and referred to the veil as “one of the civilizational foundations of the Iranian nation” and “one of the practical principles of the Islamic Republic.”
It exhorted people to confront unveiled women. Such instructions have given hardliners the confidence to attack women in the past. A man was shown last week in a widely shared video tossing yoghurt at two unveiled women in a shop.
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