In a new move that some Iranians are calling “religious apartheid”, authorities are refusing services and imposing fines on women who refuse to wear the Islamic headscarf. Iran’s newly appointed police chief has even announced that surveillance cameras and artificial intelligence will be used to detect women without hijabs and issue penalties. These are just the latest strategies that Iran’s religious authorities are using to try to enforce Islamic dress code laws in Iran after months of protest have broken them down. Iranian women, however, say they’ve seen little evidence of the crackdown.
Over the past month, the Iranian regime has shifted its strategy to increase the pressure on women who refuse to adhere to Islamic dress norms. Authorities are compelling business owners, as well as public and private offices, to enforce headscarf laws on their premises or risk being shut down. This strategy is pitting citizens against each other, as one of our Observers in Iran told us, instead of relying on the notorious morality police enforce the hijab law on the streets.
