Iran detains woman who stripped to her underwear at university in apparent protest

A woman at an Iranian university stripped down to her underwear in an apparent act of protest after university security forces reportedly violently stopped her for not wearing a headscarf.

Video of the incident on Saturday shows an undressed woman sitting by a staircase in an outdoor area of a branch of Tehran's Islamic Azad University. It later shows the woman walking on the sidewalk and crossing the street before being surrounded by security forces and seemingly pushed into a car.

Not wearing a hijab is an offense punishable based on the Iranian regime's Sharia-based law. The law is supervised by a task force known as the morality police, which patrols around cities. In universities, students are monitored for the mandatory hijab by security forces based inside colleges.

The woman was initially taken to a police station and then transferred to a psychiatric center, according to the Telegram channel for the Iranian newspaper Farhikhtegan. A spokesperson for the university said the "real motive" of the act is still under investigation, Farhikhtegan reported.

This still from a video shows a woman protesting in her underwear sitting by the staircases in a branch of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 3, 2024.

Reuters

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a history of taking protesters to psychiatric centers, claiming their acts of resistance are due to their unstable mental health.

The video of the woman, who has not officially been identified, has circulated widely on social media as of Sunday, with people calling for answers about what happened to the woman. Many people and activists are praising her for her "courage" and "resistance," sharing the video with the hashtag "Woman, Life, Freedom," a slogan for women's rights in Iran.

Objecting to the regime's decision to take the woman to a psychiatric clinic, one account on X posted that the woman "is not insane," writing: "The girl is not insane. She had no weapon to resist except for her body."

Amnesty International has called on authorities to immediately release the woman, and in a post on X urged that "pending her release, authorities must protect her from torture and other ill-treatment" and ensure she is able to contact her family and a lawyer.

"Allegations of beatings and sexual violence against her during arrest need independent and impartial investigations," the human rights nongovernmental organization added. "Those responsible must held to account."

Mai Sato, United Nations special rapporteur on the Islamic Republic of Iran, posted on her X account that she will be monitoring the incident closely, including how authorities respond to it.

A growing number of Iranian women have been pushing back against laws requiring headscarves since the deadly nationwide protests in September 2022.

The protests followed the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurdish woman who was taken into morality police custody for allegedly not fully complying with hijab rules. The 22-year-old Kurdish woman's death in police custody triggered Iran's longest anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Human rights groups say more than 500 people were killed in those demonstrations and, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency, over 20,000 people were arrested.

Amini became a symbol of resistance that sparked the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement, prompting protests and rallying all generations and sexes to the streets fighting to be free from a violent regime.