Iranian Student Arrested After Protests Using Only Underwear On Campus

Illustration of the Iranian Moral Police. (Wikimedia Commons/Fars Media Corporation/Ebrahim Noroozi)

JAKARTA - A student in Tehran was detained after protesting wearing only underwear on his campus located in the Iranian capital.

The student's action outside of her university, with several student groups and human rights, was a protest against the country's strict Islamic dress rules.

A video circulating on social media shared by human rights group Amnesty International shows the woman sitting outside the university in her underwear and her hair is not covered in a veil.

He signaled at fellow students, many of whom were women and wearing headscarves, before traveling around the place.

Another video shows him walking on the street, still naked, before a group of men surrounded him, putting him in the car and leaving.

Amnesty said on Saturday the woman had been "arrested cruelly" after she protested "firm law enforcement" against dress codes at the Islamic University of Azad Tehran.

The woman had previously been harassed by members of Basij, an Iranian volunteer paramilitary group, within the university, according to Iranian student social media channel, Amir Kabir's bulletin. It said the troop member had torn his hijab and torn his clothes.

Citing eyewitnesses, the government-run Fars news agency reported the student took off her clothes after two security personnel "talk calmly" to her and warned her of violating dress codes.

Separately, the university's director of public relations said the woman was suffering from mental health problems.

The UN Special Reporter for Iran Mai Sato told X that she would "monitore this incident carefully, including the authorities' response."

Amnesty called for immediate and unconditional release from the Azad University student and demanded that he be given access to his family and lawyers.

"The allegation of beating and sexual violence against him during arrest requires an independent and impartial investigation," human rights activists said in a statement on X. Those responsible must be (requested) to be responsible

Director of public relations at Azad Amir Mahjob University said in a post on X, the university security team had intervened "after indecent acts by one of the students" and had taken him to the police station.

In a subsequent post citing a police report, she said the student "went severe mental stress and had mental disorders." She also said the student was a mother of two, who had separated from her husband, hoping that her family's reputation would not be damaged by the online "rumor".

It is known that wearing a headscarf in public is mandatory for women based on Iran's strict interpretation of Islamic law enforced by the so-called moral police of the country.

Iranian women may be subject to severe punishment, even for minor offenses.

Protests erupted throughout Iran in 2022 against dress code following the death of Mahsa Amini (22) who died in a police custody of morality, after being arrested for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly.

The crackdown by the Iranian regime killed hundreds of people. Since then, many Iranian women have protested by removing their headscarves in public.