The Iranian regime uses surveillance cameras and facial recognition software to control and enforce its mandatory hijab rules. One of the suppliers of these cameras is the German company Bosch. However, Bosch denies the use of these devices for facial recognition.
Last June, an opposition group announced that they had hacked over 5,000 public surveillance cameras in the Tehran area. The hackers shared videos on social networks. The videos show that the software used in these cameras is registered to the Bosch company, which apparently is used to control the cameras for monitoring intersections and highways in Tehran.
According to a recent investigation published by Amnesty International, the regime is monitoring streets particularly to enforce mandatory hijab regulations. Iranian women have reported receiving text messages shortly after passing through an intersection or getting out of their cars. They are informed that “a camera has recorded them not properly wearing a headscarf.”
Mrs. Raha Bahraini a representative from Amnesty International stated in an interview with the German television program “Weltspiegel” that the authorities of the Iranian regime have equipped their surveillance system with facial recognition technologies. Women who are identified without a headscarf should expect legal consequences. She added that after receiving these text messages, many women are forced to hand over their cars for several weeks and often face travel bans and monetary fines.
Surveillance with European technology
Iranian dissidents have told reporters that cameras manufactured by companies in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany are being used on Iranian streets.
The network of CCTV cameras in Iran is very dense. A map of Tehran’s city center, prepared by activists and made available to this television network, shows that there is almost a camera in every corner of the streets. The cameras from the Chinese company “Tiandy” are the most common. According to these activists, cameras from the German company Bosch, which are used for traffic monitoring, have also been identified numerous times.
Bosch confirms in response to a question from Germany’s ARD television channel that the model of the camera seen in the leaked videos was delivered to Iran between 2016 and 2018, with a total of 8,000 cameras. However, Bosch did not directly participate in the traffic monitoring project.
Iranian opposition activists told ARD that with such tracking technology, the Iranian regime can determine whether people are gathering for protests or not. They say, “If more than five or ten people appear in the camera’s view at the same time, an alert is sent to the nearest police station, and then security forces appear. The regime is currently using this technology.”
Bosch Technology Training at a University in Tehran
ARD has obtained a document outlining the holding of a Bosch Security training course and an Iranian representative of Bosch products at Khatam University in Tehran in 2017. The topics of these training courses included “facial recognition” and intelligent object tracking. According to this document, the instructor of this training course was a Bosch sales manager in the Middle East.
Bosch also stated in its response that their cameras cannot be used for fully automatic facial recognition because the biometric facial recognition software is not pre-installed on the cameras.
In its response, Bosch further states, “So far, none of Bosch’s employees have conducted facial recognition training at Khatam University.” However, the company points out that all photos or recorded videos from a camera can be analyzed live or afterwards using server-based facial recognition software.
Iranian activists claim that such video analysis software has been sent to Iran by Milestone Systems, a Danish security company.
In response to a question from ARD, this Danish company confirmed that software solutions were sold to the Iranian regime until 2019. This includes the XProtect video management software, which is an open platform that can be used for various purposes. The company’s website states that XProtect’s “tracking and monitoring functions not only assist investigations, but they also allow you to keep a virtual eye on objects and people.” The software from this Danish company can be combined with surveillance cameras from various manufacturers, including Bosch cameras.
Bosch: Sanctions have not been violated
The Bosch company states in its response that it has not exerted any influence on how the cameras are used because it has never directly supplied its products to end users in Iran.
Bosch says it has severed all its business ties with Iran since 2019 and has complied with export regulations regarding camera sales.
However, Raha Bahreini, who is also an international human rights lawyer, believes that companies like Bosch have a responsibility: “Companies are obliged to exercise due diligence and ensure that the technologies they sell are not used to commit human rights violations.”
According to the Tagesschau website belonging to Germany’s One TV channel, women in Iran continue to suffer from oppression and suppression, and there is a possibility that they may also be subjected to harassment and abuse with the help of smart technology. In the Iranian parliament, which is dominated by hardliners, there is currently a debate on a bill called the “Chastity and hijab” law, which includes severe punishments for non-compliance with mandatory hijab for women.
The “Chastity and Veil” bill: Any citizen can take photos and videos
This legislation has brought surveillance and monitoring of unveiled women to the point where anyone has the right to take photos and videos of women who violate regulations and send them directly to authorities. These submitted documents can be used as evidence in court.
This bill imposes severe punishment, such as “imprisonment of more than five to ten years” or “a fine of up to 360 million rials (approximately $720),” for those who defy mandatory hijab. It is worth noting that the minimum monthly salary of wage earners in Iran is approximately 80 million rials, meaning a mere $160.
Among the provisions and clauses of this bill, there is an emphasis on “gender segregation” in universities, “hospital treatment departments,” educational and administrative centers, parks, and tourist sites.
One of the strange provisions proposed in this bill is that municipalities and rural councils are required to allocate 10 percent of their “cultural advertising billboards to promoting the Islamic family-centered lifestyle and the culture of chastity and hijab.”
This is happening while in the Iranian regime, 26 institutions are involved in the issue of hijab and controlling and overseeing the enforcement of mandatory hijab, and measures such as installing billboards have so far not achieved the desired results of the government.
