Iran arrests female university student who stripped to her underwear in protest over dress code enforcement

Paris — Iranian authorities arrested a female student on Saturday after she staged a solo protest against alleged harassment by stripping down to her underwear outside her university, rights groups and Iranian media said. The semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim said a student at Tehran’s prestigious Islamic Azad University had been placed in a psychiatric hospital after the incident. The university also confirmed the detention in a separate statement.

The woman, whose identity has not been confirmed, had been harassed at Azad University by members of the Basij paramilitary force who ripped her headscarf and clothes, according to reports by several news outlets and social media channels outside Iran. She then took off her clothes in protest and sat outside the university dressed in just her underwear before defiantly walking in the street to the astonishment of passers-by, videos posted on social media showed.

Under Iran‘s mandatory dress code, women must wear a headscarf and loose-fitting clothes in public.

The video, which was first posted by the Iranian student social media channel the Amir Kabir newsletter, was published by numerous Persian-language outlets, including the Hengaw rights group and Iran Wire news website, as well as Amnesty International. It appeared to have been shot by onlookers in a neighboring building. Another video showed her being bundled into a car by men in plain clothes and driven off to an undisclosed location.

The Amir Kabir newsletter alleged she was beaten during the arrest.

“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,” Amnesty International said.

The London-based rights group, which has in the past years chronicled allegations of abuse against women in Iranian prisons, added: “Pending her release, authorities must protect her from torture and other ill-treatment and ensure access to family and lawyer.”

It added that “allegations of beatings and sexual violence against her during arrest need independent and impartial investigations.”

Iran’s conservative Fars news agency confirmed the incident in a report, publishing a picture with the student heavily blurred out.

It said the student had worn “inappropriate clothes” in class and “stripped” after being warned by security guards to comply with the dress code.

Citing “witnesses,” it said the security guards spoke “calmly” with the student and denied the reports that their action had been aggressive.

Near-nationwide protests erupted in 2022 following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman who had been arrested for an alleged breach of the dress code. The protests, which saw women break taboos by removing their headscarves and on occasion even burning them, subsided in the face of a crackdown that left 551 protesters dead and thousands arrested.

Many of those swept up in the crackdown claimed harsh treatment in custody, including some who said they were tortured and sexually assaulted. Iranian officials have denied all those allegations, calling them propaganda aimed at damaging the country’s international reputation.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later announced a formal pardon of all those arrested during the protests, though many reported being rearrested or harassed by authorities afterward.

By September last year, in the wake of Amini’s death and the crackdown that followed, CBS News’ Seyed Bathaei said street protests had all but vanished in Iran but the government appeared to still be grappling with the lingering effects of the unrest. Many women, especially in major cities and at universities, continued to shun the Islamic hijab while out on the streets.

A year later, however, the country’s leaders have ushered in a new law, touted as the “Chasity and Hijab Bill,” in a bid to enforce the mandatory dress code.

Punishment for violations of the hijab rule in the bill are said to vary from fines for first-time offenders to lashings and the denial of government services, and even long jail terms for repeat violators.

“We must not leave each other to stand alone,” wrote Katayoun Riahi, an actress who backed the protests, in a post on Instagram expressing support for the student.

Hossein Ronaghi, a prominent Iranian activist who was jailed during the protests, in a post on X hailed the “bravery” of the student and described her action as a “cry from the bottom of the heart against the oppression that has taken the life out of people, especially women.”