DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Iran could use facial recognition to ID women without hijabs

Jan 11, 2023 by Dunja Djudjic 2 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of Mahsa Amini protests in Iran. They started when the country’s morality police arrested the young woman for allegedly violating the country’s hijab laws. She later died in custody, supposedly from being severely beaten.

The protests have already had many terrible consequences for the people of Iran, and now comes another one. Iranian government agency indicated that the country would use facial recognition to target and identify women who “fail to observe hijab laws,” among other things.

This particular story started when a photo of a young Iranian woman without a hijab circulated on social media. She went to work at a Tehran amusement park Sarzamineh Shadi (Land of Happiness), without wearing her hijab. Someone took a photo of her, posted it on social media, and the amusement park was reportedly closed after that, according to multiple sources. They claim that prosecutors in Tehran have opened an investigation against the woman for not complying with hijab laws.

To those cheering because of a vague statement that the morality police may have stopped operating:

The amusement park where this woman worked has been closed after a photo of working without hijab circulated on social media. Tehran’s prosecution has opened a case against her. pic.twitter.com/KBdxR9DmDc

— Shadi Sadr (@shadisadr) December 5, 2022

This leads us to the facial recognition system, which has reportedly been in the works for a while. As WIRED notes, Iranian lawmakers suggested last year that morality police should use face recognition to ID the women disobeying the hijab law. The head of an Iranian government agency that enforces morality law said that the technology would be used “to identify inappropriate and unusual movements,” including “failure to observe hijab laws.” He said that individuals “could be identified by checking faces against a national identity database to levy fines and make arrests.” Only two weeks later, Mahsa Amini died and the historic protests began.

After the protests heated up, leading to thousands of arrests and hundreds of deaths, Iran’s morality police were reportedly disbanded. However, some sources note that this isn’t really the case, and others claim that “another group could take over this task of controlling women in public.”

Is facial recognition already being used in Iran?

Mahsa Alimardani, who researches freedom of expression in Iran at the University of Oxford, says that she heard from women in Iran who received citations in the mail for violating hijab laws. However, they claim that they hadn’t had any interaction with law enforcement officers, so how could they be identified?

“Iran’s government has spent years building a digital surveillance apparatus,” Alimardani told WIRED. “The country’s national identity database, built in 2015, includes biometric data like face scans and is used for national ID cards and to identify people considered dissidents by authorities.”

A research analyst at Freedom House, Cathryn Grothe, says she also has received reports from people who suspect they’d been identified and targeted by authorities offline. She says she’s “seen a shift in Iran in recent years away from a reliance on informants and physical patrols toward forms of automated digital surveillance to target critics.”

Finally, it should be noted that the Iranian government already has access to facial recognition and uses it. According to WIRED, Iranian traffic officials started using it in 2020 to issue traffic fines. And no, it’s not for speeding and other traffic violations:  it sends SMS warnings about wearing a hijab while inside a vehicle. One can only speculate, but the government may be already using facial recognition to identify women without a hijab anywhere else, too. No need to read dark, dystopian novels anymore – we’re living in one.

[via WIRED]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Capitol riot found and arrested thanks to his girlfriend’s Instagram and facial recognition Photography From The Future: Facial Recognition Software Lands A Chicago Robber 22 Years In Jail New facial recognition features will detect photos of you across Facebook facial recognition lands innocent man in jailFacial recognition blunder lands innocent man in jail

Filed Under: news Tagged With: face recognition, Facial Recognition, Iran, women

About Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

« Panasonic says the reason PDAF took so long was to not compromise image quality
Mofage POCO review – The most exciting love story for equipment I’ve ever had »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • This massive 114-gigapixel image of Barcelona took three months to create
  • Canon EOS R3 facial recognition now knows who to focus on in a crowd
  • Canon EOS R5 now shoots 400-megapixel photos after new firmware update
  • Midjourney stops free trial due to “trial abuse”
  • Fujifilm ‘pauses’ sales of color film in Japan

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy