Decades of activism led to mass protests against Mahsa Amini’s death. Free access to the web has to be a priority now, says digital transformation expert Azadeh Akbari
and the Iranian #MeToo movement. This is why the regime has moved quickly to shut down internet access, blocking social media platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp.
However, the purpose of these shutdowns is not just to hinder mobilisation or to block the sharing of videos showing police brutality. In the past few years, the Iranian regime has been developing a sophisticated surveillance system that transcends conventional internet censorship measures. The national information network makes it possible to divide Iranian cyberspace into two parallel universes: a national network and a global one – which, to the average user, look strikingly similar.
. Even more worryingly, these cyber-surveillance powers could now be combined with newly implemented digital identity cards, which will allow the regime to identify protesters within seconds through CCTV cameras installed across the country.
An internet shutdown may not seem like an act of violence, but when bullets are fired at protesters and nobody is able to document it, brutality is able to flourish. Since the ratification of the new Islamic punitive law in 1993, police forces have been legally obliged to enforce hijab-wearing. Morality police patrols, which came into force in 2005, have quashed women’s rights in public spaces, and can lead to the arrest of anyone not deemed dressed appropriately. Woman are arrested, and transferred to the, where they are treated like criminals: their photos are taken and their personal information, including their psychological wellbeing, is recorded and archived. This hours-long, draconian procedure ends with coercing the women to cut up their “bad” clothes with scissors.
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