Iran Accelerates Hijab Enforcement Using Street Facial Recognition Cameras, ‘Morality Police’ Enforcers
Tehran is buying up Chinese surveillance tech to identify hijab violators.
Despite simmering anti-regime protests since the death of a 22-year-old Iranian woman at the hands of the Islamic Morality Police in September 2022 for not wearing a proper hijab, Tehran is tightening the enforcement of Sharia dress code. “Iran’s morality police are to resume controversial street patrols to enforce the dress code requiring women to cover their hair and wear loose clothing,” the BBC reported July 17.
After months of absences, the dreaded Morality Police are back on the Iranian streets. Earlier this month, Iran’s police spokesman Saeed Montazerolmahdi confirmed that the enforcers of the Morality Police were back on patrol to “deal with those who, unfortunately, ignore the consequences of not wearing the proper hijab and insist on disobeying the norms.”
“Go ahead and film me. What the hell are you going to do?” says a woman being filmed by a policeman for refusing to obey the Islamic Republic of Iran's forced-hijab rules in the city of Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi province. #گشت_ارشاد#بیحجابی_سراسری#پوشش_اختیاری pic.twitter.com/UbRgxPffDo
— IranHumanRights.org (@ICHRI) July 19, 2023
The Sharia enforcers “deal” with dissenting women by beating them, imposing fines, and putting them behind bars. Women refusing to wear a hijab face absurd charges of blasphemy and “encouraging and preparing the grounds for corruption and prostitution.” Some are handed lengthy prison sentences by regime-run Islamic courts for mere dress code violations.
The Associated Press reported on July 23:
Iranian authorities on Sunday announced a new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf and morality police returned to the streets 10 months after the death of a woman in their custody sparked nationwide protests.
The morality police had largely pulled back following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last September, as authorities struggled to contain mass protests calling for the overthrow of the theocracy that has ruled Iran for over four decades.
The protests largely died down earlier this year following a heavy crackdown in which over 500 protesters were killed and nearly 20,000 detained. But many women continued to flout the official dress code, especially in the capital, Tehran, and other cities. (…)
Authorities insisted throughout the crisis that the rules had not changed. Iran’s clerical rulers view the hijab as a key pillar of the Islamic revolution that brought them to power, and consider more casual dress a sign of Western decadence.
On Sunday, Gen. Saeed Montazerolmahdi, a police spokesman, said the morality police would resume notifying and then detaining women not wearing hijab in public. In Tehran, the men and women of the morality police could be seen patrolling the streets in marked vans.
Witness the intriguing scene in Tehran, Iran's subway! The regime uses religious songs to lure people towards Islamic ideology, but the youth boldly challenge their authority by defying the mandatory hijab. These are the girls of #WomanLifeFreedom revolution. pic.twitter.com/yfNkb2reyI
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) July 26, 2023
More than 500 demonstrators were killed and an estimated 2o,000 were arrested for taking part in anti-regime protests that erupted last spring. Several of them were publicly hanged from cranes to force Iranians into submission.
It is not just the morality police which is back in the streets of Iran, women are also back and waving their head scarf as an act of protest against regime.
Removing hijab is a punishable crime in Iran, but Iranian women continue to take the risk and practice their civil… pic.twitter.com/F4Nfcie5ox
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) July 20, 2023
Iran’s Sharia enforcers deploy Chinese tech
Rattled by the defiance of Iranian women, the regime is buying up Chinese surveillance equipment to identify hijab violators. China is also training Iranian officials in the art of using latest surveillance technology to quash dissent, media reports suggest.
“Beijing has helped Iran’s beleaguered regime build an intricate surveillance state, prompting some commentators to warn Iranians face a ‘dystopian future’,” the France-based Euronews TV channel reported April, 14. “Facial recognition technology and powerful tools for video and crowd surveillance, phone and text monitoring have all been supplied by Chinese companies, while Iranian government officials have reportedly received training on matters such as ‘manipulating public opinion’,” the broadcaster added.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Don’t give Democrats any more ideas. Reminds me of the Covid Karens. Just imagine if a President Newsom could shut down the country over a “climate change” emergency.
Coming to a blue corner near you. They will require wearing those pink hats.
“When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Variations:
— “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. — The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
— “Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master!”
— “When the people fear the government, that’s tyranny; when the government fears the people, that’s freedom.”
— Papers of Thomas Jefferson
Increasingly what is in Iran, Red China, North Korea, Cuba, and others, is being imposed on us. Ask yourself: You spot a police car on the road with you. What’s your preference – the cop car in front of you or behind you?
Meanwhile in Anytown USA a group of feminists protested against men calling them totalitarian members of the patriarchy b/c they continue to hold open doors or offer their assistance to these women.
Nice to learn they are returning the compliment.
Be sure to note the howls of outraged protest about Iran’s treatment of women from the left-wing feminists here in America…oh, wait, those were shrieks of outrage about a woman being sentenced for burning and burying the body of a 29-week fetus.
Never mind.
I guess in the hierarchy of victimhood, being an Islamo-fascist beats (pun intended) being a female.
Are we all grateful for American meddling against the Shah of Iran then?
Or against Hussein giving them a client state next door and eliminating a pro-American enclave that had autonomy and relative freedom?
Perhaps it is time to stop advertising reasons to meddle like “look at how different and backwards their civilization is, and how bad it is for women over there” and start talking about reasons to stop meddling, and stop creating a cultural context conducive for further crusading.
What is any of this even supposed to mean?