Iran to use subway surveillance cameras to identify and fine women without hijab

Iranian authorities will use subway surveillance cameras to identify and fine women who do not comply with the country’s strict dress code, according to the secretary of Iran’s Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice.

“Technology now allows us to match images with photos on national identity cards which leads to identifying women without hijab,” Mohammad-Saleh Hashemi-Golpayegani said in an interview shared on social media on August 29.

Wearing hijab, made mandatory for women in Iran shortly after the country’s 1979 revolution, is considered a red line for Iran’s theocratic rulers.

Women who break the strict dress code, such as by only partially rather than fully covering their hair, risk being harassed and arrested by Iran’s morality police, known as Gasht-e Ershad.

On Sunday, the spokesman for Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, Ali Khanmohammadi, told the semi-official Fars news agency that security forces have arrested “over 300 leaders of anti-hijab groups.”

Khanmohammadi did not say when the arrests took place, and there was no comment from Iran’s police or intelligence ministry.