Unveiled women could get penalised as Iran installs cameras in public places
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Salma Hossein
- . April 10, 2023
- . Update: April 11, 2023 7:48 pm
In an additional attempt to control the growing number of women not complying with the country’s compulsory dress code, authorities in Iran are installing cameras in public places to identify and consequently penalise unveiled women, the police informed Saturday.
The police statement, carried by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency and other state media, said the controversial move aims to “prevent resistance against the hijab law”, adding such resistance spreads insecurity and tarnishes the spiritual image of Iran.
Following the mysterious death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, while in police custody last September, an increasing number of Iranian women have started ditching their veils. She was arrested for allegedly violating the hijab rule.
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Iran was rocked by intense nationwide protests following her death, and authorities – in a move condemned across the globe – violently put down the demonstrations and executed a number of protesters detained.
Women across the country are still widely seen unveiled in streets, shops, restaurants, and malls, despite the looming danger of arrest for defying the obligatory dress code. Videos of unveiled Iranian women resisting the morality police have flooded several social media sites.
Meanwhile, scores of female students at schools in the northwestern city of Ardabil were taken ill a couple of days back, in a continued wave of suspected poisonings that put lives of hundreds of schoolgirls across the country in danger earlier this year.
A fact-finding committee investigating the incidents is likely to submit its report to parliament in a few weeks. While authorities have accused the Islamic Republic’s “enemies” of using the attacks to undermine the clerical establishment, suspicions have also fallen on hardliners.
