Iran's Isfahan bans dogs in parks, cars and streets in new clampdown

In a letter to the United Nations Children's Fund, a copy of which was seen by Iran International, Ebadi wrote: “The Iran branch of your organization has been active for years. However, for reasons unclear to me and my compatriots, it has failed to take effective measures to fulfill its legal obligations.”

She said UNICEF’s Iran office has remained silent despite repeated reports of juvenile executions, violations in healthcare and education, and harmful content in school textbooks.

“Numerous issues exist that UNICEF should have addressed in Iran. Yet we have only witnessed silence from this organization,” she wrote.

She also condemned what she described as the Islamic Republic’s use of children to pressure political and civil activists.

“Children are unjustly imprisoned under baseless allegations to coerce their parents into silence or collaboration with the government,” she wrote.

Ebadi cited the summons of 17-year-old Nima Khandan, son of human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and jailed activist Reza Khandan, over what she said was a baseless charge of insulting an officer at Tehran's Evin Prison.

"The initiation of this case based on false accusations is solely intended to harass this family of civil activists and to force them into silence and cooperation," Ebadi wrote.

Ebadi called on UNICEF Iran to uphold its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Iran is a signatory.

This shift from overt violence to algorithmic discipline is framed in official discourse as “smartification” and “psychological security”—buzzwords that mask a deeper objective: building a more efficient, anticipatory system of social control.

As Iran negotiates with the United States abroad, it is preparing for a future at home without a deal. Figures once tainted by high-level corruption—such as Babak Zanjani—are now rhetorically rehabilitated as symbols of national resilience, reflecting a broader effort to rebrand dysfunction as discipline.

Authorities are deploying everything from internet monitoring and mobile signal tracking to facial recognition, shop surveillance, and even mandatory in-home cameras to build a digital control society. The goal: neutralize dissent before it begins.

This new architecture of repression aims to present a softer, even “benevolent” face of policing—one nearly invisible thanks to smart technologies. The result is a seamless, predictive regime designed not only to watch citizens, but to sort, anticipate, and contain them.

Policing internet, profiling people

In recent years, the Islamic Republic has adopted a more systematized and technical approach to digital control.

A clear marker of this trend was the resolution passed by the Supreme Council of Cyberspace in January 2025. While billed as a plan to “lift filtering,” the directive in practice expands regulation of online activity.

It authorizes the government, along with the Ministry of Culture and the Judiciary, to police “criminal content,” restrict VPNs, and penalize the spread of so-called “fake news.”

This legislative tightening is matched by tactical enforcement. During protests in Izeh in March 2024, authorities imposed localized internet shutdowns that left hundreds of thousands offline. These quiet, surgical disruptions have become a recurring method of quelling unrest.

In parallel, authorities deactivated SIM cards of journalists, activists, and political users—targeting not speech, but connection itself.

The same tools are now used to enforce dress codes. In Isfahan, authorities reportedly use contactless payment readers and surveillance cameras to identify women who defy compulsory hijab.

Threatening messages are sent not only to the women, but to their families—a form of psychological policing that leverages fear and shame.

Urban surveillance, algorithmic control

These measures show no sign of slowing. In May 2025, traffic police announced plans to use facial recognition for pedestrian violations—a tool once limited to license plates now trained on people.

In October 2024, the national police (FARAJA) began equipping 50,000 officers with body cameras that livestream to command centers, turning patrols into mobile surveillance nodes.

Surveillance is also extending into the private sector. Under the “Septam” system launched in late 2024, businesses must install cameras linked to law enforcement to receive operating licenses.

In April 2025, building codes were updated to require surveillance cameras in any residential or commercial complex with four or more units. The state now watches not just public streets but the thresholds of private homes.

These initiatives fall under the “Police Smartification” plan outlined in the FARAJA Architecture Document. Though couched in the language of public service, its purpose is unmistakable: to restructure digital and urban life for maximum predictability and control.

Pre-empting dissent

The driver behind this system is not technological ambition—it is fear. Officials anticipate the return of mass protests, spurred by economic hardship, power outages, and the possible failure of negotiations.

In response, they are building a pre-emptive framework of repression, where law and policing blur, and surveillance becomes the default mode of governance.

This strategy does not merely suppress resistance—it aims to erase the very possibility of it. By severing communication, dissolving public and digital spaces, and inducing despair, the state hopes to prevent disobedience not just in action, but in thought.

If realized, Iran will not merely be a surveillance state—it will be an anticipatory one. A state where individuals are profiled, categorized, and neutralized before they act.Where repression no longer wears a uniform, but operates silently—to predict and pre-empt dissent.

Some of the accounts describe isolation in sweltering apartments, lack of essential services and increasing anger over government inaction.

In Ahvaz, where daytime temperatures top 45°C, one man said midday cuts had left families without air conditioning.

A resident of Pardis near Tehran reported being stranded in a high-rise: “On the 14th floor, we’re cut off from the world for two hours a day—no power, no water, no communication.”

In Shahreza in Isfahan province, a woman filmed a gas station rendered defunct by power cuts.

Iran faces a shortfall of nearly 20,000 megawatts, a crisis fueled by extreme heat, dwindling hydropower, and years of underinvestment.

Messages show burned-out appliances, food spoilage, and even fire damage. “This fire started because of power flickers,” said one man, gesturing to a scorched storefront. “This is one of the blessings of the Islamic Republic.”

Some residents complained about bathing children with bottled water and elderly citizens stuck in buildings without functioning elevators or water pumps.

“No bread, no water, no electricity, no internet, no clean air,” one voice said. “This already is hell.”

The outages have hit mobile networks and small businesses alike, with dead batteries at relay stations shutting down service and shopkeepers counting losses. “The fuse blew. Everything spoiled. I paid a heavy price,” said a Gelato shop owner.

Despite vast oil and gas reserves, Iran’s government has failed to upgrade infrastructure or build renewables.

Authorities continue to cite illegal cryptocurrency mining as a strain. Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said such operations now consume over 1,000 megawatts—about 5% of the shortfall.

But the broader collapse in services continues. In high-rise buildings, electricity cuts disable water pumps, leaving residents without running water. “We haven’t showered in two days,” said a woman in one video. “We use bottled water for the toilet. At least open the public baths.”

“Some have tried to prove that corruption in the Islamic Republic is systemic. That is a lie,” Khamenei said. “Corruption is like a seven-headed dragon that won’t vanish easily, but the system itself is healthy.”

Addressing provincial governors in Tehran, he called on people in power to avoid conflicts of interest and personal business ventures, saying corrupt officials face double divine punishment.

His remarks follow a withering speech by US President Donald Trump in Riyadh this month in which he accused Iran’s leadership of theft and mismanagement.

"Iran's leaders have focused on stealing their people's wealth to fund terror and bloodshed abroad. Most tragic of all, they have dragged down an entire region with them," Trump said.

The latest Corruption Perceptions Index from watchdog Transparency International ranks Iran 151 out of 180 countries in terms of public sector corruption.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian responded to Trump last week in a speech to parliament, accusing the US of hypocrisy and exploitation.

“The master thieves of the planet who rob every country now accuse others,” he said. “They came here to plunder.”

The Supreme Leader's remarks come as nearly daily protests linger across Iran.

Union members from the trucking, baking and other sectors are coordinating in ongoing nationwide strikes while pensioners have held scattered demonstrations over unpaid benefits in recent days.

Almost a third of Iranians struggle to afford basic necessities and millions live below the poverty line amid sharply rising inflation and stagnant wages.

“Family members of 3 Indian citizens have informed the Embassy of India that their relatives are missing after having travelled to Iran,” the embassy said in a statement.

“The Embassy has strongly taken up this matter with the Iranian authorities, and requested that the missing Indians should be urgently traced and their safety should be ensured.”

The missing men — Hushanpreet Singh, Jaspal Singh, and Amritpal Singh — are all from the northern Indian state of Punjab and reportedly lost contact with their families shortly after landing in Tehran on May 1.

According to Indian media, they had planned to travel to Australia via Dubai and Iran, reportedly with the help of an agent based in Hoshiarpur who is now also missing.

Relatives said the men were kidnapped and that a ransom was demanded.

The embassy said it is in regular contact with the families. There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities.