CNN
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Iran is implementing mandatory hijab laws on women using air drones, facial recognition systems and citizen reporting apps, according to a UN report released Friday.
The report highlights Iran’s escalating reliance on technology to monitor and punish women who violate essential dress codes. At the heart of this crackdown is the “Nazer” mobile application, a government-supported tool that allows citizens and police to report women on suspicion of violations.
Investigators involved in the two-year fact-finding mission accused Iran of oppression of objections, particularly systematic human rights abuses targeting women and girls and crimes against humanity.
According to the report, the “Nazer” mobile application allows users to upload license plates, locations and times for vehicles that women are not wearing hijabs. The app then “flags” the vehicle online and warns the police,” the report reads.
The app also “triggers text messages (in real time) to registered owners of the vehicle, warning that it was discovered in violation of the mandatory Hijab Act and that the vehicle will be stored to ignore these warnings,” according to the report.
Accessible by Iranian police, the app was expanded in September 2024 to target women in ambulances, taxis and public transport, short for the AS (Faraja) website.
Authorities also deployed “aerial drones” in the capital Tehran and southern Iran to monitor public spaces, and “monitoring hijab compliance in public spaces” and in early 2024 “new facial recognition software installed at the entrance gates of Amilkabil University in Tehran” as well as female students to monitor such compliance.”
CNN contacted the Iranian Embassy in London for comment.
Although it was suspended in December 2024 after internal debate, Iranian bill “hijab and chastity” looms as a serious threat to women and girls in the country.
If enacted, the law imposes a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine worth $12,000 for violations, the report says. Under Article 286 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, women could face the “death penalty” if they were accused of “corruption on earth.”
The law will delegate further strengthened enforcement powers to Iranian security equipment while also increasing the use of technology and surveillance, the report said.
The UN said hundreds of people were killed in protest in 2022 in 2022 against Iran’s forced hijab law and political and social issues following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was in moral police custody in September of that year.