Iran resorts to security cameras, ostracism to deter unveiled women

Reuters-May 3rd,2023

Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI, May 2 (Reuters) – Wary of re-igniting Iran’s worst political turmoil in years, the country’s rulers are resorting to new, less obtrusive tactics to punish women who refuse to wear the obligatory Islamic hijab.

The methods, introduced following nationwide anti-government protests last year, combine use of security cameras with denial of state services to violators, replacing the morality police whose actions were the flashpoint for the months of unrest.

The measures have yet to make much headway against opposition to the hijab, and could worsen economic pressures if they result in the closure of businesses, Iranian activists say.

“Walking unveiled in the streets is now my way of keeping our revolution alive,” said Roya, 31, a private tutor in the northern city of Rasht, who was arrested during protests in November and detained for three months.

“We are not scared of the regime’s threats. We want freedom … This path will continue until we regain our country from the clerics,” Maryam, a high school girl in Iran’s western Kermanshah city, told Reuters.

“What is the worst case scenario if I walk in the street without hijab? Arrest? I don’t care.”

For decades women who refused to wear the hijab were accosted by morality police operating from vans that patrolled busy public spaces. The vehicles’ mixed male and female crew would watch for “unIslamic dress and behaviour”.

But those vans have mostly vanished from streets of cities they used to patrol, residents told Reuters, after the protests confronted Iran’s clerical rulers with their worst legitimacy crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iranian officials have also said morality police patrols would no longer spearhead the campaign against those flouting the dress codes.

Read more on the original:

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-resorts-security-cameras-ostracism-deter-unveiled-women-2023-05-02/