Saturday, March 15, 2025 - Iran is using aerial drones, facial recognition systems, and a citizen-reporting app to enforce mandatory hijab laws on women, according to a United Nations report released Friday, March 14.
The report highlights Iran’s reliance on technology to monitor and
punish women defying the mandatory Islamic dress code.
Central to this crackdown is the “Nazer” mobile application, a
government-backed app that allows citizens and police to report women for
alleged violations.
Investigators involved in a two-year fact-finding mission accuse Iran of
systemic human rights violations and crimes against humanity in its repression
of dissent, particularly targeting women and girls.
According to the report, the “Nazer” mobile application enables users to
upload the license plate, location, and time of a vehicle where a woman is not
wearing a hijab. The app then “flags” the vehicle online, alerting the police,”
the report reads.
The app also “triggers a text message (in real-time) to the registered
owner of the vehicle, warning them that they had been found in violation of the
mandatory hijab laws, and that their vehicles would be impounded for ignoring
these warnings,” per the report.
The app, accessible via Iran’s police, abbreviated as (FARAJA) website,
was expanded in September 2024 to target women in ambulances, taxis, and public
transport.
Authorities have also deployed “aerial drones” in the capital Tehran and
southern Iran to surveil public spaces and “to monitor hijab compliance in
public spaces,” researchers found, in addition to new facial recognition
software reportedly installed in early 2024 “at the entrance gate of the
Amirkabir University in Tehran, to monitor such compliance by women students.”
Though suspended in December 2024 after an internal debate, Iran’s draft
law “Hijab and Chastity” is seen in the west as a severe threat for women and
girls in the country.
If enacted, the law would impose penalties of up to 10 years in prison
and fines equivalent to $12,000 for non-compliance, the report says. Under
Article 286 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, women could face the “death penalty”
if accused of “corruption on earth.”
The law would further delegate enhanced enforcement powers to Iran’s
security apparatus while also increasing the use of technology and
surveillance, the report says.
Hundreds of people were killed in protests, the UN said in 2022, against
Iran’s mandatory hijab law and political and social issues following the death
of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in September
2022.
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