Officials at the university claimed that this woman suffered from “severe psychological pressure and a mental disorder.”

According to reports in international media and video footage, Tehran’s security force arrested an Iranian woman who had stripped off her clothes as a protest. She was allegedly assaulted after wearing her hijab improperly, which is a violation of Tehran’s strict modesty law.

According to Iran International, the security forces assaulted a young woman at Tehran’s Islamic Azad University.

Later, a university official confirmed her arrest.

Amir Mahjoub (Director General of Public Relations, Islamic Azad University) wrote on X/Twitter that campus security intervened after a student committed an indecent action at the Science and Research Branch. The individual was handed over to the law enforcement authorities. The motives and reasons behind the student’s actions is currently being investigated.

Mahjob stated later on X, “At the police station ,…it [was] found that she had a severe mental stress and a mental disorder”.

Iran International reported, citing a student group in Iran, that the student was harassed by security for not wearing a hijab.

The student was reportedly bloodied by the security forces. Students have reported varying accounts of how the student was injured. Some claim that security forces hit her head against a nearby car, while others say they smashed it into a pillar.

Messages of Support

Masih Alinjad, an Iranian American journalist, author and women’s right activist whom the IRGC tried to assassinate on X said, “In Iran a student harassed over her ‘improper hijab’ by her university morality police didn’t give up.” She stripped down to her underwear, marched through campus and defied a regime which controls women’s body. Her action is a powerful example of the struggle for freedom by Iranian women. We use our bodies as weapons to fight a regime which kills women who show their hair.

The authorities have arrested her since then.

“Be her voice.”

Amnesty International’s Iran division wrote: “Iran’s authorities must release immediately and unconditionally the university student who has been violently detained on 2 November after she removed clothes to protest abusive enforcement of mandatory veiling by security officers at Tehran’s Islamic Azad University.

“In the interim, authorities must ensure that she is protected from torture and other ill-treatment. They also need to allow her access to her family and lawyer.” Independent & impartial investigations are needed to investigate allegations of sexual assault and beatings against her while she was being arrested. “Those responsible for the assault must be held accountable.”

The IDF Farsi account posted, “We’re witnessing one the most powerful revolutions of history.”

“A revolution where women no longer sit quietly in the face the violation of dignity and basic rights of a few brainwashed…and liberals of the system.”

Iran’s violence towards women

Tehran’s strict dress code laws have been widely condemned, particularly as those accused of violating them, such as Mahsa Amini, died in police custody.

Amini was an Iranian-Kurdish girl who lived in a small town and never questioned the country’s clerics or the Islamic dress code. According to sources close to her family, she had never challenged the clerical leaders of the country.

Amini from the Kurdish northwestern city of Saqez died three days after being arrested in hospital following a coma. This was the first major demonstration of opposition in Iran since 1,500 people died in protests against fuel prices in 2019.

Authorities have denied that Amini was beaten and stated in a press release that sudden heart failure (possibly due to preexisting conditions) caused his death. The family of the 22-year old has denied that he had ever been ill.

Arezou Bádri, 31, was shot in August and left paralyzed when she tried to flee from the police who were trying to seize her vehicle for driving it with her hair out.