Iran turns to tech to crush dissent: UN probe
Iran is increasingly using digital and surveillance technology and "state-sponsored vigilantism" to crush dissent after the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests in 2022, a UN investigation said Friday.
Tehran is making "concerted state efforts to stifle dissent, perpetuating a climate of fear and systematic impunity", the United Nations' Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said in a new report.
These involve "the increased use of technology and surveillance, including through state-sponsored vigilantism".
Iran was rocked by demonstrations after the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress rule for women based on Islamic sharia law.
Widespread anger led to weeks of taboo-breaking protests against the country's government under supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In November 2022, the UN Human Rights Council created a high-level investigation into the deadly crackdown.
The fact-finding mission's chair Sara Hossain told a press conference Friday that the trajectory had shifted from extreme violence during the protests' peak to "a silencing and repression that's ongoing".
- Criminalisation and surveillance -
"For two years, Iran has refused to adequately acknowledge the demands for equality and justice that fuelled the protests in 2022," Hossain said.
"The criminalisation, surveillance and continued repression of protesters, families of victims and survivors, in particular women and girls, is deeply worrying."
Since April 2024, Iran increased the policing and criminal prosecutions of women defying the mandatory wearing of the hijab, the probe said.
In its first report, the mission found that the violent crackdown on peaceful protests and discrimination against women and girls resulted in serious rights violations, many amounting to crimes against humanity.
Its new report went deeper into patterns of violations and crimes, and their evolution following the protests.
The investigators said that so far 10 men had been executed in the context of the protests, while at least 11 men and three women remain at risk of being executed.
- Technology 'amplifying' control -
"The state has leveraged digital tools to silence dissent, with technology amplifying and extending state control to restrict freedom of expression and association, and to control narratives," the mission said.
Hossain said Tehran had "massively engaged" in surveillance and restriction of speech in the digital realm.
The Nazer app, for example, allows vetted individuals to report non-compliance in private vehicles. In September, it was updated to monitor women "in ambulances, public transport or taxis", the report said.
The confiscation of vehicles from women for alleged violations of the hijab laws also persisted, it added.
Mission member Shaheen Sardar Ali highlighted the "chilling enhancing of surveillance through apps, drones and the use of facial recognition technology", which is "very far-reaching and highly intrusive".
Hossain said that while facial recognition technology was being used worldwide, "what's unusual and extraordinary" in Iran was its use to monitor "what a woman wears or doesn't wear".
Furthermore, in April 2024 in Tehran and southern Iran, the state used aerial drone surveillance to monitor hijab compliance, the report said.
- 'Continuously intimidated' -
Iran's judicial system lacks basic independence, the mission said, and victims seeking accountability are denied justice and "continuously intimidated, threatened, arrested, and subjected to criminal prosecution" along with their families.
"It is therefore imperative that comprehensive accountability measures also continue to be pursued outside the country," Sardar Ali said.
The probe, which is wrapping up, has collected and preserved 38,000 evidence items and interviewed 285 victims and witnesses over two years
Iran denied the mission access to the country.
Rather than seeking a prolongation of its own investigation, the mission called for a new probe into rights violations with a broader scope than just the protests and their aftermath.
The report will be presented to the Human Rights Council on Tuesday.
rjm/js
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
I hate Khamenei's regime. But I love Iran even more.
Arash Azizi is a contributing writer at the Atlantic and author of 'What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom.' I've loathed the dictatorship of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I'd roll my eyes every morning during the obligatory salute to our supreme leader in the schoolyard. I resented the strictures, the atmosphere of moral probity the man in robes presided over.
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
What is Iran's secretive Fordow site?
Iran's secretive Fordow nuclear site, hidden in a mountain south of the country's capital, has become a focal point in the escalating Israel-Iran conflict, as the U.S. weighs stepping in to help Israel topple Tehran's nuclear capabilities. The Fordow site, formally known in the international community as the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant and in Iran as the Shahid Ali Mohammadi Nuclear Facility, is located under more than 300 feet of rock, necessitating the use of heavy weaponry to strike it. The U.S. has the capability to deploy massive bombs known as bunker busters to hit the facility, but Israel does not. The United Nations's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last verified Fordow's enrichment capabilities on May 28, according to its most recent report on Iran's nuclear activities. An analysis from the independent Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists based on the IAEA report concluded that Iran has enough centrifuges and uranium hexafluoride gas at the site to produce several nuclear weapons. 'They could probably produce enough weapon-grade (90 percent) enriched uranium for one nuclear weapon within five to six days,' the Bulletin reported. The Bulletin's analysis noted that Fordow's underground location means 'it could — in theory — continue to operate even after other nuclear facilities in the country have been destroyed, with its material then fueling nuclear weapons to be produced clandestinely.' 'Fordow is, therefore, a crucially important place if one attempts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,' the Bulletin's analyst wrote. 'If Israel decides to continue down the military path against Iran's nuclear program, it has no choice but to ensure that the Fordow enrichment plant no longer poses a threat.' Then-President Obama publicly revealed the existence of the Fordow facility in September 2009. 'It was designed and built over the past several years in direct violation of resolutions from the Security Council and from the IAEA,' Obama said at the time, noting that 'the size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program.' Iran had disclosed its above-ground Natanz enrichment site, but Fordow's existence was a secret. 'Iran's decision to build yet another nuclear facility without notifying the IAEA represents a direct challenge to the basic compact at the center of the non-proliferation regime,' Obama said. The IAEA was granted daily access upon request to monitor the Fordow enrichment facility under the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but President Trump upended the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 during his first administration and Tehran gradually moved away from allowing strict international oversight. Iran removed all of the agency's surveillance and monitoring equipment at Fordow in 2022. Trump's second administration was attempting to hash out a new nuclear agreement with Iran that would prevent it from developing a weapon, but Israel's surprise strikes against Iran last week stopped the ongoing negotiations. Experts also question what Iran would do if Fordow isn't demolished. 'A deal could be constructed that would permit inspectors of the IAEA access to the site, just as was the case until June 13. But Israel's attack has most probably changed Iranian strategic calculus fundamentally,' the Bulletin's analyst wrote. 'Even if there were to be a deal in which Fordow remained in existence as a uranium enrichment site, the risk of an Iranian breakout scenario to produce nuclear weapons is probably greater today than it was a week ago: Iran has been shown that its conventional military cannot deter an Israeli attack, and therefore it is far likelier to have difficulty restocking its missile and other military forces (especially air defense) than Israel will.'
New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
Before and after photos of Iran's Arak heavy water reactor following Israeli airstrike
Satellite images have captured Iran's Arak heavy water research reactor with a huge gaping hole blasted through it after Israel dropped a bomb on the nuclear site — which was built as a key part of the country's atomic bomb ambitions. The before and after photos shed light on the damage inflicted on the facility after the Israeli military said it pummeled the nuclear site near Iran's central city of Arak early Thursday in a targeted attack. In the aftermath of the blast, one image showed a large crater in the dome of the partially built heavy-water research reactor. Advertisement 3 The before and after photos shed light on the damage inflicted on Iran's Arak heavy water research reactor after the Israeli strike. Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies/AFP via Getty Images Israel also later released black-and-white footage of the strike on the Arak reactor, which showed the bomb exploding on the dome before a massive plume of fire and smoke erupted into the sky. Fighter jets targeted the Arak facility and its reactor core seal to halt it from being used to produce plutonium, Israel's military said. Advertisement 'The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,' the Israelis said. 3 Israel also later released black-and-white footage of the strike on the Arak reactor, which showed the bomb exploding on the dome before a massive plume of fire and smoke erupted into the sky. IDF Heavy-water reactors produce plutonium, which — like enriched uranium — can be used to make the core of an atom bomb. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog noted that since it was not in operation and contained no nuclear material at the time, there was no danger to the public of any 'radiological effects.' Advertisement The facility had also been evacuated before the attack, Iranian state television reported. 3 The United Nations' nuclear watchdog noted that since it was not in operation and contained no nuclear material at the time, there was no danger to the public of any 'radiological effects.' IDF In the lead up, the Israel Defense Forces had shared an evacuation warning across social media that included a satellite image of the nuclear plant — complete with a red circle blast zone. Advertisement 'Dear citizens, for your safety and well-being, we urgently request that you immediately evacuate the designated area in Tehran's Area 18. Your presence in this area puts your life at risk,' the IDF wrote on X. With Post wires
