Iranian police officers stop a car during a raid to enforce the Islamic dress code north of the capital Tehran on April 22, 2007. BEHROUZ MEHRI / AFP
Women who refuse to wear the veil in the car face a fine or even imprisonment if they do it again.
New step in the process of suppressing demonstrations in Iran. Its name: Nazer-1. Announced by a police officer on Monday January 2nd, this module, whose name means ‘surveillance’ in Persian, has a simple aim: to alert all women in their car who are not wearing their hijab properly.
The goal? Send an SMS to these unruly Iranian women pointing out that “it is necessary to respect the norms of society and to ensure that this act is not repeated” in order to remove the veil. Another brick in the building of curbing women’s freedoms in an Iran that has been rocked by a wave of massive protests for nearly four months.
SEE ALSO – Lyon: the tribute to Mohammad Moradi, Iranian suicide, to draw attention to the revolt in Iran
Reinforcement of the 1983 Act
The process of this Nazer 1 program is simple. Police identify drivers who are not wearing their veil or wearing it incorrectly and immediately text them using the phone number linked to their vehicle’s license plate. The women contacted by the police then have to go to the office nearest to their place of residence and sign a paper pledging not to repeat this breach of the law. If they are caught driving “incorrectly” wearing the veil again, they risk having their vehicle confiscated, fined or even imprisoned.
“This is a tightening of the 1983 law that required women to wear a veil in public,” explains sociologist Azadeh Kian. A specific request in response to the demonstrations of unprecedented proportions that have rocked Iran for nearly four months following the killing of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish boy of 22, by the controversial vice squad.
A repression that now has a name
In fact, surveillance of the population in Iran via SMS has existed for ten years and is happening in waves. “This is not new, because the regime has been blindly sending collective messages to men and women alike for many years,” recalls Mahnaz Shirali, a sociologist and political scientist specializing in Iran. “What is changing is that this repression is part of a delimited program. And now it has a name, and last but not least: the ‘1’ indicates that this is only the first stage of a long process. To smash every trace of protest “.
In addition to this program, there is another prohibition measure: Iranian women who do not respect the wearing of the veil are denied the use of several services, especially banks or hospitals. And conversely, staff at these institutions who are seen helping lawbreakers risk losing their jobs.
Also readIn the Middle East, demonstrations in support of Mahsa Amini aim to reshuffle the hand of women
This increased surveillance of women who refuse to wear their hijab is a concrete application of the law. “In fact, women are subject to the veil requirement as soon as they are in public space, even if they are in their private car,” explains Azadeh Kian. “This measure is particularly aimed at Iranian women who refuse to wear the hijab on the pretext that their car is their personal vehicle, thus affecting their privacy.”
For Azadeh Kian, Nazer-1, which wants to tighten the bolts of the veil yoke in Iran, is primarily symptomatic of the “riddle of the local authorities”. “The police no longer know how to enforce the law. And recourse to the moral police, responsible for the death of Mahsa Amini, who set the powder on fire in Iran, should be ruled out.” “The idea,” continues Mahnaz Shirali, “is to rape women between four walls when go to the police station instead of raping her in the middle of the street in front of everyone”.
“The showdown will continue”
An ambitious program that Iranian law enforcement officials say has already proven its worth. A senior police official in the country said Tuesday morning that 300,000 text messages have already been sent to women who are unveiled or inadequately veiled and 150,000 women have reported to police stations. An efficiency to qualify for Azadeh Kian. “The issue of the veil is already a solved problem for Iranian women. They won’t wear it anymore,” she insists. “They will go so far as to risk fines and prosecution but continue to disobey. The showdown continues.