For the authorities of Iran, the decision of the women and girls who refuse “Obligatory in the country – constitutes a” social anomaly “that must be fought. To do this, they have deployed an intense operation that seeks to guarantee the fulfillment of the strict clothing code, with actions that include the police presence in the streets and the generalized use of technology to monitor those who challenge the law. This has been concluded this Friday from the Independent International Mission of Research on the Islamic Republic – created by the UN Human Rights Council -, which has collected cases of state persecution that include the increasingly frequent use of drones and facial recognition software by the Masoud Pezeshkian government.
The mission – is intended to investigate the alleged violations of human rights related to the protests that began on September 16, 2022, date on which Yina Mahsa Amini, a young 22 -year -old Kurda, in Tehran under the accusation of bringing the veil “inappropriate”. At least 550 people died, ten men were executed and 60,000 protesters were arrested in the protests, which extended until February 2023. During those months, the State faced demonstrations throughout the low country, which were repressed hard by the Iranian security and paramilitary forces.
Since then, they have continued with the “gender reasons” persecution against Iranian women and girls, underlines the independent mission. Within the cases collected by the report, in addition to the digital surveillance of the protests, they highlight air supervision with drones to monitor the compliance with the Hiyab in the public spaces of Tehran and in southern Iran in April 2024, as well as the installation of a “new facial recognition software” at the entrance door of the capital, to “supervise compliance by students” of the institution.
Another example is the application Nazeravailable on the official website of the Iranian Police. The mobile application allows, since September 2024, to inform about the breach of the regulations on the use of the Hiyab in private vehicles, as well as ambulances, public transport or taxis. “Users can add the place, date, time and registration number of the vehicle in which the alleged mandatory infraction of the Hiyab occurred, which then ‘points out’ the vehicle online, alerting the police,” explains the report. The application sends a text message to the vehicle owner to inform you of the infraction and warn you that it can be confiscated by security forces.
In contrast to the authorities of the authorities, the UN mission explains that there is a “strong social support” to women, “even men and young people and individuals from various professional, ethnic, religious and socio -economic origins.” This defense articulates, according to the report, “long -standing complaints and demands for social and political reform.” However, he emphasizes, all those who question the laws of discrimination for sex reasons “continue to run the risk of being detained, detained, tortured, sentenced to long prison sentences or even the death penalty.” In early February, Iran Human Right denounced that they were sentenced to death during 2024: the highest figure since the NGO has records.
During the moderate government – who was presented in the elections that followed – Iran has continued with the harassment of women and girls. The president has not yet signed or enacted the “Law on the Protection of the Family through the promotion of the culture of chastity and the Hiyab”, which includes prison sentences of up to ten years, fines of up to more than the equivalent of 11,000 euros and restrictions on education and employment to those who refuse to comply with the clothing code, as highlighted by the NGO. The law, approved by the Iranian Parliament, had to enter into force on December 13; However, its application was suspended a day later.
Pezeshkian had promised to end the police patrols of the morality – the security body that has as its main task to stop women without a handkerchief – although apostillating that he would do it “if possible.” But, eight months after their arrival at office, “women are still arrested and retained in the police police stations administered by the Public Morality Security Police,” the report collects. In the second semester of 2024, more and more women were forced to appear “before the criminal or revolutionary courts”, in which, in some cases, “they were convicted, even to flagellation, on the basis of evidence known as ‘reports provided by the security forces’ or ‘photographs presented by the Police’”. These evidence confirm – in criteria of the UN mission – that police surveillance continues to stalk women in their daily lives. Only in the framework of the so-called Iranian Police Noor Plan- a more of the initiatives to stop or incite the delation of women without veil- at least 618 Iranians were arrested in 2024, says the report, which cites a “credible organization of human rights”.
