Iran arrests female student who stripped to protest harassment

Iran

Iranian authorities arrested a female student Saturday after she staged a solo protest against harassment by stripping to her underwear outside her university, reports said.

The woman, who has not been identified, had been harassed inside the prestigious Tehran Azad University of Science and Research by members of the Basij militia 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 just in her underwear before defiantly walking in the street to the astonishment of passers-by, videos posted on social media channels showed.

Under the dress code mandatory in Iran, women must wear a headscarf in public and loose-fitting clothes that cover all bodily contours.

The footage, which was first posted by Iranian student social media channel, the Amir Kabir newsletter, was published by numerous Persian-language outlets, including the Dadban legal affairs social media channel, the Hengaw rights group and Iran Wire news website.

The footage 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.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the reports, but 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 insisted that the security guards spoke "calmly" with the student and denied the reports that their action had been aggressive.

Unprecedented women-led protests erupted in 2022 demanding the abolition of the mandatory dress code following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman who had been arrested for an alleged breach.

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.