Iran has launched a major new crackdown on women defying the country’s strict dress code, deploying large numbers of police to enforce laws requiring women to wear headscarves in public, according to human rights advocates. 

The campaign began last month just as military tensions spiked between Iran and Israel.

Condemning the effort as a “war on women,” Amnesty International said in a statement this week that “security forces across the country have intensified their violent…