An Iranian female student who stripped to underwear at a university on Saturday, November 2 after allegedly being harassed by security officers for not adhering to the mandatory hijab regulations has been sent to a psychiatric hospital. The alleged action prompted an immediate response from several human rights organisations to ensure protection for the woman.
Incident
The incident occurred when the student, whose identity remains confidential faced harassment from the campus security officers for not donning a hijab (head scarf). Reports indicate that during a confrontation, the officers assaulted her due to which she removed her clothes as a form of protest against their actions.
Videos of the protesting student captured by others surfaced on social media showing the student sitting outside in her underwear, gesturing towards fellow students, many of whom were seen wearing headscarves. She was later seen walking around the campus before being forcefully detained reportedly by undercover agents.
Soon after the video of the incident surfaced on social media, people across the globe flagged their concerns about the safety of the woman alleging that she might face the fate of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was killed in police custody in Iran on September 16, 2022, due to the same reasons.
Admitted to psychiatric hospital
After her arrest, the university officials asserted that the woman was “under severe mental pressure” and had a mental disorder, suggesting that her actions were not politically motivated but rather a symptom of psychological distress.
However, human rights activists including the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights have expressed doubts about this story claiming that ascribing her behavior to mental illness is one of the tactics employed by the authorities to bring into question the legitimacy of protests against the strict dress code laws.
Amnesty International calls for her immediate release
Amnesty International criticized the arrest of the woman and demanded her release and assurance that she would not be subject to torture or other forms of abuse in prison.
They stressed the need to conduct an independent probe into the reports of violence during her arrest.
Earlier Amnesty International condemned the arrest of the student and wrote, “Iran’s authorities must immediately & unconditionally release the university student who was violently arrested on 2 Nov after she removed her clothes in protest against abusive enforcement of compulsory veiling by security officials at Tehran’s Islamic Azad University”.
This incident draws a parallel to a larger movement which triggered following the death of Mahsa Amini and led to significant unrest across the country.
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