Editor’s Note: Dr. Emily L. Blout is a media scholar and historian with subject matter expertise on propaganda, information operations, and media manipulation by state and non-state actors. She is the author of Media and Power in Modern Iran: Mass Communication, Ideology, and the State (Bloomsbury, 2024). Blout holds a Ph.D. in Iranian Studies from the University of St. Andrews and a M.A. in Security Studies from the National Defense University.
By Barbara Slavin, Distinguished Fellow, Middle East Perspectives Project
One morning during the Iranian New Year’s holiday in 2024, a woman walked through the historic Naqsh-e Jahan Square with her hijab draped loosely around her neck, her long black hair flowing freely. Within fifteen minutes, her phone buzzed with a text from the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” headquarters demanding that she “correct” her clothing. Soon after, her father called — he too had received a message. His scolding was sharp: Her unveiled appearance had endangered their entire family.
Three years after the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests swept Iran, women continue to be the targets of an increasingly sophisticated surveillance apparatus designed to monitor and punish their resistance. But that doesn’t appear to have stopped them from asserting their right to wear what they want in public.
The 2022 protests began with tragedy. On September 16, 2022, Mahsa Jina Amini died in police custody after being detained by Iran’s morality police. The death of the young Iranian Kurdish woman ignited nationwide demonstrations that lasted nearly six months — the largest and arguably most consequential uprising in the Islamic Republic’s history. Women led the charge, removing their headscarves and waving them like flags of defiance, shattering the regime’s carefully constructed image of public compliance.
The government’s response was swift and brutal. Security forces raided schools, poisoned water supplies, and deliberately targeted protesters’ eyes with gunfire. Mass arrests followed — 22,000 people were detained, many facing fines, harassment, and torture. Over 500 protesters died at the hands of security services, while executions soared.
Digital repression accompanied physical violence. Authorities activated the so-called National Information Network (NIN) to sever Iran’s connection to the global internet, impose digital curfews, and launch targeted blackouts. They shut down VPNs, used CCTV footage to identify and arrest demonstrators, and harassed anyone who dared to voice support for the resistance online.
The surveillance state today is in part a product of the protests, a last-ditch attempt by the state to re-assert its authority over women’s bodies and lives. Despite President Masoud Pezeshkian’s pre-election promises to ease hijab enforcement andhis refusal to enforce a harsh new bill passed by parliament, authorities have deployed increasingly sophisticated surveillance tools to try to intimidate women into compliance.
The swift detection mentioned at the beginning of this story — the target is an amalgam of two women featured in reporting by the US-based human rights’ monitor MIAAN — illustrates the power of International Mobile Subscriber Identity-Catchers (IMSI-Catchers), among Iran’s most advanced surveillance technologies. These devices intercept wireless signals to access phones and read contactless ID cards, creating what a recent report by MIAAN described as a powerful, multilayered dragnet. Police can instantly identify targets through government databases by combining cell phone data with surveillance camera footage and contactless card reader information.
Meanwhile, the Nazer mobile application transforms ordinary citizens into surveillance agents, allowing both police and civilians to report hijab violations in vehicles. Users can submit license plates, locations, and timestamps when they spot women with uncovered hair. The system automatically flags vehicles online and sends real-time warnings to registered owners, who face fines and vehicle impoundment. In September 2024, Nazer’s reach expanded to include women in ambulances, taxis, and public transportation.
While experts debate whether facial recognition was used during the 2022 protests, such technology has undeniably proliferated since then. AI-enabled surveillance cameras now monitor major intersections, storefronts, and university entrances. In 2023, hacktivists exposed Behnama, sophisticated video surveillance software with facial recognition capabilities. The government has also deployed aerial surveillance drones in Tehran and southern regions to monitor hijab compliance from above.
Authorities have increasingly leaned on video surveillance as a means of intimidation and deterrence. In three months during 2023, authorities announced they had sent 1 million text messages and confiscated 2,000 cars from women observed driving without hijab, referring over 4,000 “repeat offenders” to the judiciary. Many Snapp (a state sponsored ride-share app equivalent to Uber) drivers refuse to pick up unveiled women for fear of losing their cars and their livelihood. One text from the government to a Snapp driver read:
Respected owner of the car with license plate number ********, there was a violation of the country’s laws and regulations (unveiling) in your car in a public space at the address of Imam Square on 03/09/1402 [May 30, 2023] at 10:02am. If you repeat this mistake and do not pay attention to previous violations, your car will be automatically impounded for 15 days.
The reach extends beyond streets. Shops, restaurants, shopping malls, and pharmacies face fines and closure when observed serving unveiled women.
Women’s Persistent Resistance
Despite this technological arsenal, Iranian women are going without hijab in unprecedented numbers. Many likely feel emboldened by the 2022 protests and the regime’s apparent weakness following the 12-day war with Israel, joined at the end by the U.S., that destroyed much of the country’s nuclear infrastructure and exposed vulnerabilities in Iran’s military apparatus. Authorities now hesitate to conduct mass arrests of women, fearing they might spark another uprising. “There are just too many of them,” one journalist with deep knowledge of the situation explained to this author on condition of anonymity.
Indeed, evidence suggests the regime strategy has shifted somewhat from physical enforcement to psychological pressure relying on text message warnings rather than mass detention. Some observers believe these messages serve dual purposes: reminding women of the omnipresent eye of the state while generating revenue for a government under severe economic strain, as recipients are typically ordered to pay fines.
The Chinese Connection
Iran’s surveillance capabilities have advanced significantly through partnerships with China, formalized in a 25-year cooperation agreement signed in 2021. Chinese companies have supplied facial recognition technology and sophisticated tools for video surveillance, crowd monitoring, and phone tracking. According to the Tehran Bureau, an Iran-focused news site based outside Iran, at least eight Chinese companies provide Iran with sensitive surveillance equipment and software.
The United States has limited tools to counter Iran’s repressive technologies, but more sanctions remain an option. The Treasury Department has identified and sanctioned Iranian nationals and businesses involved in technology-related human rights abuses. Most Chinese companies enabling Iran’s surveillance state already face sanctions, with Tencent — creator of WeChat with offices in Tehran — representing a notable exception that merits consideration for future sanctions.
The U.S. should also expand funding for VPN development and other privacy tools, as the regime intensifies its crackdown on Virtual Private Networks that allow Iranians to circumvent state internet controls and surveillance.
Three years after the Islamic Republic confronted perhaps the most consequential episode of unrest in its history, the regime struggles to maintain the appearance of broad consent to its rule. For many clerical insiders, the sight of hijab-less women walking city streets is an existential threat to their religious and corporeal authority. Iranian women, it appears, remain determined to keep up the pressure.
However, the surveillance state’s technological sophistication cannot mask a fundamental reality: When resistance becomes widespread enough, even the most advanced tools of oppression lose their power to control.