A student who stripped down to her underwear in protest was detained in Tehran. Videos of the individual action, filmed by eyewitnesses, were spread on Iranian social networks and later in the media on Saturday, November 2, UNN reports with reference to DW.
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In one of the videos, a naked girl walks down the street and then sits on a stone parapet near the Islamic University of Azad.
Another recording shows plainclothes men pushing a student into a car and driving her away to an unknown location. The student publication Amir Kabir Newsletter reports that the girl undressed after members of the Basij paramilitary group accused her of wearing the hijab "improperly" and tore her clothes. During the detention, the girl was beaten, including hitting her head on the car door, which led to bleeding, the newspaper writes. It does not name the student's name.
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. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/lI1JXYsgtm
— Amnesty Iran (@AmnestyIran) November 2, 2024
The human rights organization Amnesty International demanded that the Iranian authorities "immediately and unconditionally release a university student who was brutally detained after she took off her clothes to protest the unlawful use of force by security officials (of the university - Ed.) who demanded that she wear a covering.
"The allegations of beating and sexualized violence against her during detention require an independent and impartial investigation," the human rights activists emphasized. A university representative said that the detainee was mentally ill and that she had been sent to a clinic.
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In 2022, nationwide protests swept across Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an Iranian citizen of Kurdish origin who was detained by the moral police on charges of wearing a headscarf improperly. The protests, during which women removed their headscarves and sometimes even burned them, subsided only after a crackdown that left more than 550 protesters dead and thousands arrested. The European Parliament posthumously awarded Amini the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Protests also took place on the first and second anniversaries of her death.
All women in Iran are required to hide their hair under a headscarf and wear loose clothing. The authorities threaten violators with "ruthless persecution" and plan to detect them using "smart cameras." Currently, the country's parliament is considering a draft law that would tighten the rules for wearing the hijab. The idea has already been approved by the Council of the Guardians of the Constitution, a watchdog body made up of conservative Islamic clerics.