Islamic Republic of Iran artificial intelligence The AI’s crackdown on the nation’s people has particularly affected the freedom of Iranian women.
Behnam Ben Taleb, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that the Iranian regime is “moving into the AI space to further benefit from technologies that connect disparate strands: facial recognition, CCTV, cell phone analysis, traffic geolocation and internet surveillance,” and “increasing its cyber-repression against street protesters and women who do not wear the hijab properly.”
Enhanced AI tools will be a key aspect of the upcoming “Hijab and Chastity Bill,” which was approved by the Iranian parliament in September 2023 and awaits ratification by the regime’s Oversight Council.
Talebr said AI has become “the cherry on top of Iran’s digital repression sundae. Whether it starts with very crude tools like CCTV in stores or an archive of records of alleged criminal activity that the regime places at the foot of its AI screening tools, no human has to make the links, freeing up more human resources for the misdeeds of Iran’s repressive apparatus.”
Iran’s First Lady enacts hijab law ‘out of respect for women’, violators could face 10-year prison sentence
A huge mural of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei is painted next to a smaller mural of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (right) on Motahari Street in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on March 8, 2020. (Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)
Article 30 of the Hijab and Chastity Law stipulates that police “build and strengthen intelligent systems to identify perpetrators of illegal acts using tools such as fixed and mobile cameras.” Iran International reported.Article 60 requires private companies to provide video footage to enforcement officials to verify compliance.
Businesses that do not comply could lose “two to six months’ profits,” and women who do not properly cover their hair could face penalties ranging from fines to “social exclusion, banishment, closure of social media pages, confiscation of passports for up to two years,” and even up to 10 years in prison.
Iranians protest against the death of 22-year-old Martha Amini in custody by morality police in Tehran on October 1, 2022. (Associated Press)
Taleb said the hijab and chastity bill would allow authorities to use AI to wage a “legal and economic war against women”, targeting the homes, cars, bank accounts and livelihoods of women who do not comply.
UN experts said the bill would allow Iran to rule “through systematic discrimination with the intent of oppressing and totally subjugating women and girls,” which amounts to sex-based persecution, or discrimination based on sex.
Iran looks to AI to survive Western sanctions, help army fight “cheaply”
A surveillance camera on a street in Tehran, Iran, on April 9, 2023. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters)
Long before the bill was passed, the Iranian government had been preparing for the expanded use of AI, installing new cameras across Iran as early as April 2023. Amnesty International’s report details the increased pressure on Iranian women between April 15, 2023 and June 14, 2023. During this period, an Iranian police spokesperson claimed that the police sent “nearly one million SMS warning messages to women caught unveiling in their cars” and 133,174 messages about vehicle theft. Nearly 2,000 cars were seized and more than 4,000 “repeat offenders” were referred to Iranian judicial institutions.
From April 2023 to March 2024, Amnesty International Morality police “arbitrarily ordered the confiscation of hundreds of thousands of vehicles” for improperly covered interiors. Testimonies said confiscation orders were “based on photos taken by surveillance cameras and reports from plainclothes officers patrolling the streets and reporting license plates using a police app.” Amnesty also reported that some women received prison sentences, flogging, fines, or were sent to “morality” classes.
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
In 2022, students took to the streets in Iran as protests reached their 83rd day. (National Council of Resistance of Iran)
The regime likely used AI in the 2022 protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested and beaten to death by the morality police for wearing her hijab loosely.
Sara Hossain, head of the UN’s investigation into the 2022 Iran protests, determined that the Iranian regime used AI to monitor social media platforms during the protests. Iran Wire reported.
In October 2023, the U.S. Export blockage timeline Exporting AI chips to China, Iran, and Russia, restricting their access to advanced AI capabilities.
Iranian police walk on the streets as new hijab surveillance goes into effect in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2023. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters/File Photo)
Click here to get the FOX News app
Taleblu suggested additional ways to control access to technology, which could “strengthen Iran’s digital or cyber repression apparatus.” He recommended that the U.S. work with European companies to strengthen export controls and closely monitor new Chinese technology subsidiaries operating in Iran. By continually prosecuting and sanctioning new companies, the U.S. is “increasing transaction costs.”
“There’s talk about technology, cyberspace and AI liberating people and building bridges,” Taleb said, “but the Islamic Republic is using them to build borders and then wall off Iran and impose its will on its people.”
