Page 11 - IRANRptOct22

statement in a move that deviates from the path of the fruitful approach during the talks."
2.5 Iran said to plan use of facial recognition to enforce wearing of hijab by women
The hardline Iranian government is reportedly set to use facial recognition technology on public transport to identify women not obeying a strict new law on wearing the hijab head covering.
Secretary of Iran’s Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, recently briefed local media that the government was planning to deploy surveillance technology to monitor women in public places. The move appears related to a new decree, on August 15 signed by President, Ebrahim Raisi, on restricting women’s clothing.
In July, Iran’s “Hijab and Chastity Day” triggered nationwide protests by women who posted videos of themselves on social media with their heads uncovered on streets, buses and trains.
Iranian authorities responded with arrests, detentions and forced confessions on television.
The hijab became mandatory after Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Since 2015, the Iranian government has been gradually brought in biometric identity cards. Their chip stores data on iris scans, fingerprints and facial images.
“Ebrahim Raisi is a real ideologue,” Annabelle Sreberny, professor emeritus at the Centre for Iranian Studies at Soas University of London told the Guardian in reference to the facial recognition technology plans. “There are terrible economic and environmental problems facing Iran. The inflation rate may now be reaching 50%, but the government is choosing to focus on women’s rights.” Sreberny added: “I think it is part and parcel of a failing government that is simply not dealing with these massive infrastructural, economic and environmental issues. And women are seen to be a soft target.”
11 IRAN Country Report October 2022 www.intellinews.com