by A female student at a university in Tehran stripped to her underwear in protest after campus security officers harassed her because of her hijab.
Videos circulating widely on social media show the unidentified student sitting outside the campus in her underwear surrounded by security guards.
Another video shows her walking around campus in her bra and knickers as she stares at her classmates while filming on their cellphones.
Her act of resistance started after a confrontation inside the science and research center of Azad University on Saturday, when security forces physically attacked the student because she was not wearing a headscarf.
In response to having her clothes ripped off, she chose to remove her remaining clothes in protest, according to the Iranian student social media news channel Amir Kabir newsletter and witnesses who spoke to the Telegraph.
Multiple witnesses testified that she was subsequently detained by the authorities. Video footage showed security officers abducting her from the campus.
Officers forcibly detain students
About 10 security guards were caught on video forcibly bundling the young woman into a vehicle. The footage showed a group of officers passing her before she was detained.
“God, how many of them are attacking just one person?” one onlooker was heard saying. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” said another.
“Around noon, near the entrance of the faculty, I saw a girl being forcibly carried and taken away by security forces,” one witness told the Telegraph from Tehran.
“She wasn’t wearing a scarf. They then reached the security building near the entrance, where a man and a female security guard grabbed her and tried to force her into the office.
“She resisted, and her hood was torn from her body, it made her angry and she took off the rest of her clothes.
“She shouted at them angrily and took off her trousers – she sat outside the campus for a few minutes and the officer became more aggressive.
“I couldn’t see much but, a few minutes after she started walking, some plainclothes officers flagged her down and put her in a car.”
Student media outlets reported that she suffered injuries during the arrest, including severe head trauma after being hit by a vehicle. Witnesses said traces of blood were visible at the scene.
#Science and Research Girl
The film was widely shared in Iran and the student has already become a powerful symbol of resistance, attracting attention across the country under the hashtag: “Girl of Science and Research.”
“If courage had a face,” one user posted on X with the girl’s picture. “That brave girl is my leader,” another user wrote.
Amir Mahjoub, the university’s director of public relations, said she was transferred to a “police station” and claimed she was under “severe mental stress and suffering from psychological disorders”.
The Farhikhtegan newspaper, which is affiliated with the university, also claimed, citing “official and unofficial sources” that the student has “serious psychological and mental issues”.
The report added that after the university’s security team handed her over to the police, she has been hospitalized in a psychiatric facility.
Location and condition unknown
No further information was available on her condition or whereabouts.
Amnesty International urged the Iranian authorities to release the girl “immediately and unconditionally”.
This is not the first time that officials and media affiliated with the Islamic Republic have subjected protesters to “mental disorders” and forcibly placed them in psychiatric institutions. The protest echoes earlier acts of civil disobedience, particularly that of Vida Movahed, known as the “Enghelab Street Girl”.
The reckless display attracted international attention in 2017 when a woman removed her headscarf and held it aloft on a stick while standing to protest against the mandatory hijab.
Observers have drawn parallels between these demonstrations, seeing them as key moments in the ongoing struggle of Iranian women for personal freedoms.
After the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody in September 2022, and the subsequent protests, Iranian universities also faced repression and stricter control. The protests led to acts of civil disobedience by Iranian women and girls against the mandatory hijab.
New tougher laws
All women in Iran must cover their hair with a headscarf and wear loose trousers under their coats when in public but an increasing number of Iranian women are seen in public without head coverings.
Iran’s security forces and police have stepped up enforcement of the rules. A new bill making its way through Iran’s parliament is set to tighten regulations governing how women and men can dress in public, but authorities have begun implementing it before it is formally approved.
Article 50 of the bill states that anyone found “naked, half-naked, or wearing clothing considered inappropriate in public” will be immediately arrested and handed over to judicial authorities.
The bill also enforces gender segregation across a wide range of settings, including universities, hospitals, educational and administrative centers, parks and tourist sites.
People who violate the new rules are banned from leaving the country and using social media for a period of six months to two years.
“One day these girls will bring down Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the future of Iran belongs to free women, not the mullahs,” a student from Tehran told the Telegraph.
“Many women will remember her as a hero,” she said of the girl who protested on Saturday. “After this regime falls, her picture will be everywhere in Iran, like Mahsa Amin’s picture and many others.”
