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Since the lightning war of June 2025, Iran’s increasingly fragile and paranoid regime has intensified its assault on women. Armed with advanced surveillance, emboldened militias and draconian laws, the state is waging a campaign to erase women from public life. Yet, despite fear and repression, resistance lives on quietly but defiantly. In Iran, a silent war is being waged between the regime and its women.
Repression of women in Iran is not new. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, their freedoms have been tightly controlled by an institutionalized patriarchal system that monitors every aspect of their lives, such as education, work, movement and expression. The veil, often internationally seen as the symbol of this oppression, is only the most visible part of a far broader and more insidious system of control.
Since the 12-day war in June 2025, the regime has intensified its crackdown to unprecedented levels, combining advanced surveillance technologies, paramilitary forces and harsh laws to suppress female dissent.
Total Control: The Streets as a Theater of Surveillance
Humiliated by the swift war against Israel, the weakened and paranoid regime of Khamenei stepped up the militarization of public spaces. The return of the paramilitary militias known as Komiteh, active in the 1980s, signals a new phase. Present in streets, schools and public transport, they function as informal political police, targeting women above all.
Since June, viral videos have shown women dragged along the ground, beaten or arrested for “inappropriate clothing.” Raids have taken place in subways, taxis and shopping centers. According to the HRANA news agency, dozens of women have been detained in just weeks.
A leaked internal police directive, revealed by Iran International, orders officers to “increase visible controls to project the image of the state’s authority” in public places.
When Digital Oppression Runs Rampant
Political scientist and IRIS researcher David Rigoulet-Roze explains that Iran’s recent security crackdown goes beyond ideology, “The tightening of dress codes and exclusion of unveiled women from universities and public service recall the regime’s early decades. But today, we face a new era of unprecedented techno-security authoritarianism.”
A key element of this shift is AI-powered facial recognition technology monitoring women in public transport, streets, shopping centers and even private vehicles.
Investigations by US-based IPVM reveal Iran has imported facial recognition systems from Chinese companies like Hikvision, technologies first deployed in Xinjiang against the Uyghur minority.
These systems are active in major Iranian cities, automatically identifying women deemed “deviant” and issuing digital fines without direct contact. Penalties escalate with repeated offenses.
The NAZER app empowers citizens to report women “in violation” using license plate numbers or photos.
Rigoulet-Roze explains, “With a single click, women reported for ‘bad hijab’ face fines starting at $160, rising to $4,000 for repeated offenses. Fines are sent home. Unpaid fines can lead to vehicle impoundment or confiscation. Public or online ‘nudity’ can trigger arrest, prosecution and up to 10 years in prison or $12,000 in fines. Repeat offenders face up to 15 years or $22,000 in fines.”
This system turns citizens into enforcers of moral policing, embedding control into daily life, routines and movement. It is far more than a disciplinary policy, it is a radical strategy of systemic social exclusion that may restrict access to public services and even healthcare.
This system of control relies on automated punishment and the fragmentation of society, turning everyone into both watcher and watched. “The more threatened and vulnerable the regime feels, whether economically, militarily or socially, the tighter its grip becomes. This is a clear sign of its mounting anxiety,” he adds.
Since 2023, the think tank Bourse & Bazaar Foundation reports that Iran has heavily invested in “automating public morality” by combining AI, citizen surveillance and extensive data networks.
Erasing to Dominate: Women Made Invisible
The regime is launching a direct assault on women’s visibility in public life. Teachers, engineers and journalists face suspension or expulsion under vague pretexts. Human Rights Watch reports an unprecedented surge in workplace harassment and bans targeting women who dare to speak out.
“The government aims to punish and control how women publicly present themselves. It views women as the primary bearers of dissent,” explains the political analyst.
Since June, many activists have been prevented from leaving the country without male permission, marking a return to archaic restrictions and underscoring the regime’s intent to confine women to the domestic sphere. As the analyst observes, “The regime is resurrecting coercive measures to forcibly uphold a traditional patriarchal order that feels increasingly threatened.”
At the same time, censorship of women’s digital spaces is intensifying. Blogs, Telegram channels, health forums and support groups are being blocked, shut down or covertly infiltrated.
“The regime fears digital speech as much as physical protest. Words spread, persist and are archived,” adds the analyst.
Resistance: Covert but Resilient
Despite harsh repression, resistance endures. Secret networks, reminiscent of those in Afghanistan, are growing: educational support, anonymous information sharing and domestic solidarity groups.
“This continues a trend since 2022. With streets too dangerous, the struggle has moved online through parallel social and cultural networks and home-based solidarity,” says the expert.
While currently centered in major cities, these initiatives could form the foundation for broader opposition, despite vulnerabilities to heightened surveillance. “The regime’s obsession with internal control has left it blind to external threats, including foreign infiltration of its security apparatus. This is its fundamental weakness. The system is repressive but unstable. A single unforeseen event could topple it.”
Power Wavers, Women Stand Firm
“By targeting women, the regime seeks to crush a social force that has embodied hope for change for decades,” says Hadi Ghaemi, director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran.
Khamenei’s regime knows that silencing women suffocates any hope for freedom in Iranian society. But it fails to see that this repression exposes its weakness and fear—a regime in crisis, cornered and willing to do anything to survive.
As Lyna Maalouf, Amnesty International’s regional director, states, “The regime weaponizes the justice system to crush all dissent, especially that led by women, who represent a threat to its survival.”
This grim reality, confirmed by many NGOs, reveals a stark truth: while the regime crumbles, women remain unyielding.
Despite fear, arrests and violence, Iranian women continue their dignified and just struggle, exposing the moral decay at the heart of the regime.
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