Iranian authorities impose “generalized surveillance” of women in public and “massive police checks” on drivers to ensure they are wearing the mandatory Islamic headscarf behind the wheel have led to “tens of thousands” of car seizures, reports Amnesty International’s report.

“Tens of thousands of women have had their cars impounded arbitrarily as punishment for daring to defy the laws mandating the headscarf on Iranian women. Others are prosecuted and sentenced to flogging or imprisonment, fined or forced to attend ethics seminars,” according to the organization’s report based on dozens of testimonies from women living in Iran.

“In an attempt to break down resistance to the headscarf requirement in the wake of the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, Iranian authorities are terrorizing women and girls by subjecting them to constant surveillance and enforcement measures,” reports Diana Eltahawy, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Division.

“According to official announcements, since April 2023, Iran’s Moral Police has ordered the impoundment of tens of thousands of cars whose drivers or passengers, sometimes as young as nine years old, were not wearing the headscarf or were wearing it ‘inappropriately’ ” way”, according to the announcement of Amnesty International.

These orders “are based on images obtained from surveillance cameras or reports of plainclothes officers patrolling the streets and using a police app, Nazer, to report the license plates of cars whose drivers or passengers do not comply with the rules”.

“Targeted women and their families receive threats via SMS or phone calls asking them to report to Ethos police and hand over their vehicle,” the Amnesty International report said.

“For several months now, police officers have been stopping and checking cars in an unpredictable and massive way, targeting female drivers on busy roads (…),” complains the organization that spoke to women who described chases and outright immobilization of cars at the time that they fulfill their daily obligations.

According to reports, women are routinely denied access to public transport, airports or banking if they are not wearing a headscarf.

In recent months, more and more women have been appearing without the obligatory Islamic headscarf in public, especially after the mass protest movement sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsha Amini in September 2022 while in custody. The young woman was arrested in Tehran by the Ethon police because she was “inappropriately” wearing the Islamic headscarf.