Iranian woman arrested after stripping at university in Tehran

CNN
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A student stripped down to her underwear outside her university in Iran in what some student and rights groups said was a protest against the country's strict Islamic dress code.

A video circulating on social media and shared by human rights group Amnesty International shows the woman sitting outside the university in her underwear and her hair uncovered.

She gestures to her fellow students, many of whom are female and wearing headscarves, before strolling through the grounds.

Another video shows her walking down a street, still unclothed, before a group of men surround her, bundle her into a car and drive away.

Amnesty said on Saturday the woman was “forcibly arrested” after she protested against the “abusive enforcement” of the dress code at Tehran's Islamic Azad University.

According to an Iranian student social media channel, the Amir Kabir newsletter, the woman had previously been harassed on university grounds by members of the Basij, an Iranian volunteer paramilitary group. It was alleged that police officers tore her headscarf and clothing.

Citing eyewitnesses, the state-run Fars news agency reported that the student took off her clothes after two security guards spoke to her “calmly” and warned her about violating the dress code.

Woman strips down to her underwear in front of a university in Tehran

The university's public relations director said the woman suffered from mental health problems.

CNN was unable to independently determine the circumstances behind the incident.

Mai Sato, the U.N. special rapporteur on the Islamic Republic of Iran, said on X that she would “closely monitor this incident, including the response of the authorities.”

Wearing a hijab (or headscarf) in public is mandatory for women under Iran's strict interpretation of Islamic law, enforced by the country's so-called moral police.

Iranian women can face harsh punishments for even minor infractions.

Protests against dress codes erupted across Iran in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in the custody of morality police after being arrested for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly.

Hundreds of people were killed in the Iranian regime's subsequent violent crackdown. Since then, many Iranian women have protested by removing their headscarves in public.

Amnesty called for the immediate and unconditional release of the Azad University student and that she be given access to her family and lawyer.

“Allegations of beatings and sexual violence against them during arrest require independent and impartial investigations,” the human rights activists said in a statement on X. “Those responsible must be held accountable.”

Amir Mahjob, public relations director of Azad University, said in a post

In a later post, citing a police report, he said the student was “under severe psychological pressure and has a mental disorder.”

He also said the student was a mother of two and had separated from her husband, and he hoped her family's reputation would not be damaged by “rumors” on the Internet.