Just weeks ahead of the one-year anniversary of the mass protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, Iranian authorities are considering a draconian new bill on hijab-wearing that experts say would enshrine unprecedentedly harsh punitive measures into law, writes CNN.

The 70-article draft law sets out a range of proposals, including much longer prison terms for women who refuse to wear the veil, stiff new penalties for celebrities and businesses who flout the rules, and the use of artificial intelligence to identify women in breach of the dress code.

Experts said the bill, which has not yet been passed, was a warning to Iranians that the regime would not back down from its stance on the hijab despite the mass demonstrations that rocked the country last year.

The bill was submitted by the judiciary to the government for consideration earlier this year, then forwarded to the parliament and subsequently approved by the Legal and Judicial Commission. It is set to be submitted to the Board of Governors this Sunday before it is introduced on the floor of parliament, state-aligned news agency Mehr reported Tuesday.

Iran’s parliament would work on finalizing the text and voting on the bill “in the next two months”, Mehr said. It is “a clear response to the protests from September of last fall”, Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the Chatham House think-tank in London, told CNN, adding that the establishment was attempting to “reassert authority over veiling and the requirements expected of women”.