Iran is using drones and apps to catch women who aren’t wearing hijabs – UN report

Iran is using aerial drones, facial recognition systems, and a citizen-reporting app to enforce mandatory hijab laws on women, according to a United Nations report released Friday, March 14.

The report highlights Iran’s reliance on technology to monitor and punish women defying the mandatory Islamic dress code.

Central to this crackdown is the “Nazer” mobile application, a government-backed app that allows citizens and police to report women for alleged violations.

Investigators involved in a two-year fact-finding mission accuse Iran of systemic human rights violations and crimes against humanity in its repression of dissent, particularly targeting women and girls.

According to the report, the “Nazer” mobile application enables users to upload the license plate, location, and time of a vehicle where a woman is not wearing a hijab. The app then “flags” the vehicle online, alerting the police,” the report reads.

The app also “triggers a text message (in real-time) to the registered owner of the vehicle, warning them that they had been found in violation of the mandatory hijab laws, and that their vehicles would be impounded for ignoring these warnings,” per the report.

The app, accessible via Iran’s police, abbreviated as (FARAJA) website, was expanded in September 2024 to target women in ambulances, taxis, and public transport.

Authorities have also deployed “aerial drones” in the capital Tehran and southern Iran to surveil public spaces and “to monitor hijab compliance in public spaces,” researchers found, in addition to new facial recognition software reportedly installed in early 2024 “at the entrance gate of the Amirkabir University in Tehran, to monitor such compliance by women students.”

Though suspended in December 2024 after an internal debate, Iran’s draft law “Hijab and Chastity” is seen in the west as a severe threat for women and girls in the country.

If enacted, the law would impose penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines equivalent to $12,000 for non-compliance, the report says. Under Article 286 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, women could face the “death penalty” if accused of “corruption on earth.”

The law would further delegate enhanced enforcement powers to Iran’s security apparatus while also increasing the use of technology and surveillance, the report says.

Hundreds of people were killed in protests, the UN said in 2022, against Iran’s mandatory hijab law and political and social issues following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in September 2022.