UN warns Iran the world is watching its response to woman who stripped to protest

A UN special rapporteur has warned Iran that she is monitoring the case of a woman who was arrested after stripping down to her undergarments to protest about an assault she alleges she was subjected to for not following the country’s notoriously strict hijab laws.

Human rights groups and activists called on Iranian authorities to release the woman, whose whereabouts have been unknown since her arrest over the weekend.

The incident triggered outrage among Iranian dissidents two years after thousands of women took to the streets in protest following the brutal death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.

“I will be monitoring this incident closely, including the authorities’ response,” Mai Sato wrote on X. She shared a video that showed the woman sitting and walking around the university campus in her underwear.

Another video shared widely on social media showed her being detained by security forces and forcibly put in a car.

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Iran’s security forces reportedly assaulted the woman and tore off her clothes inside Tehran’s Islamic Azad University science and research branch on Saturday for not following strict hijab rules.

Local daily paper Hamshahri reported on its website, citing an “informed source”, that the woman “has severe mental problems and, after investigations, she will most likely be transferred to a mental hospital”.

Farhikhtegan, a newspaper affiliated with Azad University, claimed that she had been admitted to a mental health facility.

In a video circulated by state media, a man identified himself as the woman’s husband and claimed that she is a mother of two and suffers from mental health issues.

Activists have accused Tehran of routinely sending women protesting the headscarf law to psychiatric facilities to discredit them.

“Iranian authorities systematically use involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation as a tool to suppress dissent, branding protesters as mentally unstable to undermine their credibility,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Amir Mahjoub, director general of public relations at Islamic Azad University, said: “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.

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

Her arrest has triggered a backlash against the Iranian regime for throttling dissent using familiar techniques previously used by authorities to clamp down on female protesters.

The French foreign minister on Tuesday told broadcaster France 2: “I hail the courage of this young woman who demonstrated her resistance and turned herself into an icon for the women’s struggle in Iran.”

Following his statement, the Iranian embassy in Paris claimed the woman’s initial indication showed she “was suffering from family problems and a fragile psychological condition”.

The protester was a seventh-semester French language student with no prior history of mental health issues, according to the Iran Wire news website.

Jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi issued a statement from prison, describing the woman’s body as a “symbol of rebellion, anger, and resistance”, Iran International reported.

Ms Mohammadi said women pay the price for their defiance but do not bow to force, as she called for the student’s release.

The hashtag “Science and Research Girl” has been trending on social media, with people sharing art and statements in solidarity with the woman.

“Iranian women rebel against everything that has imprisoned them. They rebel against everything that invites them to silence,” wrote activist Hamed Esmaeilion in Arabic.

Amnesty International’s Iran unit called on the authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release the student.

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

Twenty-two-year-old Amini died after being detained by the morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly. Her death became a tipping point, sparking unprecedented protests that became associated with the slogan “Women, life, freedom” and lasted for three months.

More than 500 people were killed in a months-long security crackdown that followed, while over 22,000 were 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 teenager Armita Geravand was injured in a mysterious incident on Tehran’s metro while not wearing a headscarf. She later died in hospital after falling into a coma.