Wear hijab or face music: Iran uses surveillance technology to locate women flouting head scarf laws

The Iranian government has decided to use facial recognition technology in public places to catch women who flout the hijab decree.

Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, the secretary of Iran’s Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, said in a recent interview that there are plans to use surveillance technology to find women who refuse to adhere to laws that regulate women’s clothing. 

Wearing the hijab and modest clothing became mandatory for women and girls over the age of 9 in Iran, following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, but the implementation of the law depends on the ruling government.

Hardline President Ebrahim Raisi maintained the importance of the hijab law and branded opposition to it as a systematic promotion of corruption in Islamic society.

Measures in adherence to hijab laws have become stricter. In July, the deputy prosecutor of Mashhad in northeast Iran banned women from attending offices and banks or using the metro if they do not wear the hijab.

Women have regularly been targeted by the republic’s morality police, known as Gasht-e Ershad, for showing hair in public or for “improperly” wearing the hijab.