A female student was ‘violently’ arrested after stripping down to her underwear ‘in protest’ against Iran’s strict dress code for women.
The student, who has not been named, had her dress torn by Iran’s shadowy vigilante force for ‘not wearing a headscarf’ inside Tehran’s top Islamic Azad University.
Video showed the woman removing her clothing and walking out onto the street in her underwear after the scuffle with the Basij on Saturday afternoon.
She strolled around the campus ground – sitting on a stair bannister for several seconds – before being bundled into a car by men in plain clothes, further video showed.
University officials said the woman was ‘under severe stress and suffering from mental disorders, and has been transferred to a medical centre’.
Yet Masih Alinejad, a journalist and women’s rights activist, said the unknown woman had been ‘harassed by her university’s morality police’.
‘She turned her body into a protest, stripping to her underwear and marching through campus – defying a regime that constantly controls women’s bodies,’ she added on X.
‘Her act is a powerful reminder of Iranian women’s fight for freedom. Yes, we use our bodies like weapons to fight back a regime that kills women for showing their hair.’
A source told student-led NGO AmirKabir Newsletter that the unidentified woman suffered ‘severe physical abuse’ as well as ‘heavy bleeding’ after striking her head on either a column or the car’s door. One of the car’s tyres was covered in blood.
The student was taken to an unknown location and no further information on her condition or whereabouts has been given since.
Police have not yet commented on the incident but Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that a student wearing ‘inappropriate clothing’ had ‘stripped’ after security guards ‘calmly’ told her to comply with the dress code.
The Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) said the student was not challenged about wearing a hijab but using her mobile phone to film people without their permission.
Women in Iran must wear head coverings and loose clothing in public under the country’s ultraconservative Islamic system of government. Not complying – a violation that isn’t exactly consistent, activists say – can lead to prosecution.
Amnesty International’s Iranian branch called for an ‘independent and impartial’ investigation.
‘Iran’s authorities must immediately and unconditionally release the university student who was violently arrested after she removed her clothes in protest against abusive enforcement of compulsory veiling by security officials,’ the charity said on X.
‘Pending her release, authorities must protect her from torture and other ill-treatment and ensure access to family and lawyer.’
The incident comes more than two years since Iran was rattled by protesters after Mahsa Amini, 22 died in custody after the morality police accused her of violating the dress code and arrested her on a Tehran street.
Bare heads appeared up and down Iran as women tore off and burnt their headscarves, refusing to put them back on even as police violently cracked down.
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