Iran’s Morality Police Use AI to Track Women. Here's How to Stop Them.

With President Donald Trump declaring that he’s on the cusp of striking a nuclear deal with Iran, he ought to remember his promise earlier this year to “stand with the women of Iran who face daily abuse by the regime.”

Iranian women need that support now more than ever, as the regime has added a new instrument of oppression to its toolbox: artificial intelligence.

In 2022, a wave of protests called for women’s rights after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been brutalized and detained by Iran’s morality police for “improper” veiling. Since then, the Iranian government has come down heavily – and often violently – on women who dare to defy its despotic, state-mandated hijab laws. In order to further track and target women, Iranian authorities have increasingly turned to AI-assisted technology, a sector that thrived in spite of U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first administration.

Since 2020, Iranian traffic police have been using facial recognition algorithms to identify women drivers caught on camera who are either not wearing their hijabs properly, or are unveiled inside their vehicles. As a result, more than 1 million SMS messages have been sent to women drivers threatening to have their cars confiscated, and tens of thousands of cars have actually been taken. As Iran continues to develop its AI-integrated military drones, it is only a matter of time before the state employs them to gather intelligence and punish its citizens even more broadly.

These invasive practices are not new to Iran’s surveillance state, but the intensified use of technology certainly is. The Biometric National Identity Card, introduced in 2015, granted the Iranian government access to a central database that stores personal data, including iris scans and facial images, that are used to surveil and apprehend the country’s political dissidents and religious minorities.

What’s more, the regime’s parliament approved an even stricter “hijab and chastity” bill in December, allowing for the use of AI in surveilling women both online and off. Under the bill, violating Iran’s stringent dress code could be doubled to being punishable by up to 10 years in prison and hefty fines, making even worse existing legal and economic discrimination toward women.

The fear that women already experience on the street, at the beach, inside a store or on social media is being transformed to constant paranoia under the ever-watchful eyes of AI surveillance. Women constantly worry about being punished, knowing they can be easily identified. They self-police rather than risking imprisonment – or their lives – to defy these laws.

It’s no wonder that during his first press conference as Iran’s new president last fall, Masoud Pezeshkia, a supporter of the hijab law, assured women that the morality police would no longer “bother” them. And it’s not untrue – with AI-assisted surveillance, there’ll be no need for human morality officers.

Fortunately, following a backlash from the international community, Iran postponed the implementation of the hijab and chastity law passed at the end of the year. But it’s far from the last we’ll hear of the bill.

The U.S. must use new approaches to challenge the dire conditions women and girls in Iran face. During his first term, Trump brokered historic agreements in the region. As a potential nuclear pact with Iran approaches, the White House faces another chance to foster positive change in the Middle East.

The previous nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration – which Trump cancelled for not being strong enough – didn’t restrict Iranian behavior outside of limitations on its nuclear program. Trump indicated during his recent Gulf trip that a new deal would go further when he demanded that Iran “stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars and permanently and verifiably cease pursuit of nuclear weapons” as part of any agreement. But the president should also call for an end to oppressive practices against Iranian women, such as state-mandated veiling and the weaponization of AI.

Pressure alone, however, will not be enough to liberate women and girls in Iran. The new administration and its allies should help provide digital tools that allow Iranian citizens to communicate with other Iranians and the outside world. For example, in September 2022, a few days after Amini’s death, the U.S. Treasury issued a license that permitted Iranian citizens to access software, services and hardware that supported free communication.

Trump has even greater influence now over tech leaders and investors. His administration can urge them to develop secure and accessible AI systems that human rights advocates can use to document, collect and disseminate evidence of abuse. These tools could also help activists identify and debunk disinformation that the government spreads to manipulate public opinion inside and outside Iran.

The first Trump administration made promises to Iranian women that it did not keep. This term can be different – but only if Trump chooses to make it so. Hopefully, he will, for the sake of those who continue to dream of a dignified life in Iran – despite being born a woman.

Ibtissam Bouachrine is an ASMEA member and professor at Smith College and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, working on cyberviolence targeting women in Africa and the Middle East. She is also a Public Voices Fellow on Advancing the Rights of Women and Girls with the OpEd Project.

Read the original article in U.S. News and World Report.