In a new attempt to control the growing number of women who defy the mandatory dress code, the Iranian authorities are installing cameras in public places and streets to identify and punish veiled women, police announced on Saturday.
Once they have been identified, violators will receive "text messages warning about the consequences," police said in a statement.
The move is aimed at "preventing resistance against the hijab law," said the statement, carried by the Mizan judiciary news agency and other state media, adding that such resistance tarnishes the country's spiritual image and spreads insecurity. .
A growing number of Iranian women have removed their headscarves since the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in the custody of morality police last September. Mahsa Amini had been detained for allegedly violating the hijab rule. Security forces violently put down the revolt.
Still, at the risk of arrest for defying the mandatory dress code, women are widely seen unveiled in malls, restaurants, stores and streets across the country. Videos of unveiled women resisting the morality police have flooded social media.
The police statement on Saturday called on business owners to "seriously monitor compliance with social norms with their diligent inspections."
Under Iran's Islamic sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are required to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothing to conceal their figure. Violators have faced 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 going back on the issue.
He urged citizens to stand up to unveiled women. Such directives have in recent decades emboldened hardliners to attack women. Last week, a viral video showed a man throwing yogurt at two unveiled women in a store.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
