Police Forces Mandate Installation of Approved Cameras in Commercial Units

The spokesperson for the Iranian Chamber of Guilds announced that based on regulatory guidelines for monitoring locations, commercial units are now required to install police-approved cameras that allow police access to the memory of these cameras through a system. Mehdi Omidvar announced this news on Tuesday, October 2. He stated that according to the regulations and guidelines for police monitoring of public places, the 'Septam' system has been established for visual monitoring of public places, which is 'an oversight body for the quality of protective systems in commercial units (cameras)'. The justification for launching this system is that with the installation of these cameras, in the event of an 'incident or crime' at commercial units and public places, the police can review the recorded information and follow up on the matter. However, it is unclear from his statements whether 'crime' refers to theft or if the term also encompasses the phenomenon of disregard for mandatory hijab. Since the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests in Iran, which began with the death of Mahsa Jina Amini in the custody of the morality police, opposition to mandatory hijab has become public, and many women do not wear hijab in public places including cafes, restaurants, and shopping centers. Several women have been arrested and prosecuted for posting images of themselves without hijab in public places, including restaurants, during the protests following Mahsa Amini's death. The 'Market Analysis' website reported that since the police are unable to track 'low-quality and unguaranteed' cameras during incidents such as theft, they have requested that commercial activists install and operate cameras that meet the specifications and standards of police-approved laboratories. According to Omidvar, 'This system has been created with the help of the private sector and in cooperation with the national licensing portal and the police.' According to the spokesperson for the Iranian Chamber of Guilds, with the establishment of this system, 39 categories and about 280 homogeneous categories, including jewelers and restaurants, will now connect to the police system through the national licensing portal - a system defined for obtaining business licenses. 'The approval' of Ebrahim Raisi for increasing surveillance cameras to enforce mandatory hijab. The police and judiciary in Iran also use existing city cameras to deal with the phenomenon of opposition to mandatory hijab and even fine vehicles carrying women without mandatory hijab. Meanwhile, the government has ignored the requests of families seeking justice to identify the assailants of protesters killed during the protests of 2022 using images from regional cameras.