Iran arrests female student who stripped to protest harassment

An Iranian woman was arrested after reportedly stripping down to her undergarments to protest an alleged assault by security forces for not following strict hijab laws.

The woman was reportedly assaulted, and her clothes were torn inside Tehran’s Islamic Azad University science and research branch on Saturday for not following strict hijab rules, Iran International reported.

A widely circulated video on social media shows a woman sitting and walking around the university campus in her underwear.

Another video shows her being detained by security forces and forcibly taken into a car.

Islamic Azad University confirmed her arrest on X (Twitter) without giving any reason.

“Following an indecent act by a student at the science and research branch of the university, campus security intervened and handed the individual over to law enforcement authorities,” Amir Mahjoub, director general of public relations at Islamic Azad University, wrote on X.

“The motives and underlying reasons for the student’s actions are currently under investigation.”

The student sustained injuries after being physically assaulted during her arrest, Iran International reported, citing a newsletter by the student group Amir Kabir newsletter.

It said the student was “disrobed after being harassed for not wearing a headscarf and having her clothing torn by security forces”.

“Blood stains from the student were reportedly seen on the car’s tyres,” the newsletter said, adding that her head was struck either by a car door or a pillar which caused heavy bleeding.

Amnesty International’s Iran unit called on the Iranian authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release the student who was violently arrested on Saturday.

“Pending her release, authorities must protect her from torture and other ill-treatment & ensure access to family and lawyer. Allegations of beatings and sexual violence against her during arrest need independent & impartial investigations. Those responsible must held to account,” it said in a statement on X.

A growing number of women are defying the strict hijab laws in the country by discarding their veils since the brutal 2022 death of Mahsa Amini.

Twenty-two-year-old Amini died after being detained by the morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly. Her death became a breaking point, sparking unprecedented protests known as “Women, life, freedom”, which lasted for three months in the country.

A monthslong security crackdown that followed killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained.

However, media reports indicate that nothing has changed since the protests, and scattered photos and videos have surfaced showing women and young girls being roughed up by officers.

In October 2023, Iranian teenage Armita Geravand was injured in a mysterious incident on Tehran’s metro while not wearing a headscarf. She later died in the hospital after falling into a coma.

In July, activists reported that police opened fire on a woman fleeing a checkpoint to avoid her car being impounded for not wearing the hijab.

The country’s new reformist president Masoud Pezeshkian campaigned on a promise to halt the harassment of women by morality police. But the 85-year-old supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who remains the country’s ultimate authority, has previously said that “unveiling is both religiously forbidden and politically forbidden”.