Tehran, Iran.- In a new attempt to curb the growing number of women who defy the mandatory dress code, the Iranian authorities are installing cameras in places and on public roads to identify and punish veiled women, the country’s Police announced on Saturday.
Once identified, offenders will receive “consequence warning text messages.”
The aim of the move is to prevent resistance against the hijab law, according to the statement, carried by the Mizan news agency and other state media, adding that such resistance tarnishes Iran’s spiritual image and spreads insecurity.
A growing number of Iranian women have shed their headscarves since the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in the custody of the Morality Police in September. Mahsa Amini had been arrested for allegedly violating the hijab rule. Security forces violently put down the revolt.
Even so, women continue to appear unveiled in malls, restaurants, shops and streets across the country, risking arrest for defying the mandatory dress code. Videos of unveiled women resisting the Morality Police have flooded social media.
The police statement on Saturday asked business owners to “seriously monitor compliance with social standards with their diligent inspections.”
Under Iranian Islamic law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are required to cover their hair and wear long, loose clothing to conceal their figure. Violators face public reprimands, fines or arrest.
Describing the headscarf as “one of the foundations of the civilization of the Iranian nation” and “one of the practical principles of the Islamic Republic,” an Interior Ministry statement on March 30 said there would be no turning back on this issue. .
In it, citizens were urged to stand up to unveiled women. In decades past, these kinds of directives encouraged hardliners to attack women.
Last week, a viral video showed a man throwing yogurt at two unveiled women in a store.
