After an investigation, it was found that a considerable number of CCTV cameras were apparently given to the Islamic Republic of Iran by Bosch, a well-known German manufacturing firm, to target anti-hijab women and protesters.
As per accounts from activists within Iran, the authorities in Iran are allegedly using these cameras to keep tabs on women who defy the country's strict Islamic laws and dressing code. These Bosch cameras are an essential part of a vast monitoring system that Tehran's government deploys to quell unrest across the country.
Bosch, a German multinational engineering and technology company headquartered in Gerlingen, confirmed that from 2016 to 2018, it successfully sold about 8,000 cameras to the Islamic Republic of Iran. It was the time when Western companies were permitted to conduct business with Iran.
In 2017, it was discovered that a high-ranking Bosch employee had visited Khatam University, a non-governmental and non-profit university in Tehran, for a presentation on topics like facial recognition technology. However, the German company said that the seminar never took place.
According to reports from activists in Iran, these cameras are purposefully placed at busy crossings to observe women who remove their mandatory headscarves (hijab) in public, a move that is prohibited by Iranian law.
Women who are traveling through these crossroads get text messages from state security threatening fines for allegedly wearing headscarves improperly.
Amnesty International, an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, also reported that women received threatening messages on their phones for allegedly wearing hijab in the wrong way.
After the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the nuclear deal, to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions was signed in 2015, Germany was the first western country to strengthen its business cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Sigmar Gabriel, who served as the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018 and the vice-chancellor of Germany from 2013 to 2018, also led a delegation of 150 business executives to Iran.
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