AI surveillance identifies women for hijab enforcement texts in Iran
Iranian authorities deployed facial recognition and video surveillance to identify women not wearing headscarves and sent them enforcement text messages, reportedly using systems that tracked pedestrians and metro passengers without their knowledge or consent.
What happened
Beginning in late April 2025, women in Iranian cities including Isfahan, Tehran, Shiraz, and Tabriz received text messages warning them to observe mandatory hijab, signed by provincial committees of the Setad-e Amr be Ma'ruf va Nahi az Monkar (Committee for Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil).
The messages identified women based on surveillance footage from cameras, face-to-face recognition systems, and in at least one documented case, from repeated footage at metro stations showing women without headscarves. One woman reported that metro staff retrieved surveillance videos from other times when she had entered wearing a headscarf, used that information to identify her, and created a file against her.
Reported impact
Women reported being unable to identify which cameras captured them, where they were located, or at what time. One woman stated she did not own a vehicle and questioned how authorities obtained her phone number.
Index analysis
The surveillance deployment occurred despite President Masoud Pezeshkian's refusal to implement a 2023 law mandating active government enforcement of hijab. Iranian officials, including the government spokesperson, stated they were unaware of the texts and that hijab is a cultural matter to be addressed through persuasion rather than enforcement.
Governance controls
President Pezeshkian declined to enforce the family protection law approved by parliament in November 2023 and supported by the National Security Council as a temporary resolution to the dispute.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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