Iran does not consider the female student who stripped in public a security threat

 

Iran does not consider the female student who stripped in public a security threat. The government has stated that the woman is currently receiving treatment at a facility after being taken to a police station.

Charges have not been filed against the female student who was arrested for removing her clothes at a university in Iran. The incident occurred on a campus of the Islamic Azad University in northwestern Tehran. Human rights advocates, Amnesty International, and some social media users perceive her actions as a protest against Iran's mandatory Islamic dress code.

The young woman stripped down to her underwear in public on Saturday. She was detained by university security and then taken to a police station. An official from the university and local media have described her as suffering from mental illness.

Some local media outlets have also shared a video clip that allegedly shows the woman's former husband. The man, whose face was obscured, was clearly heard crying and mentioning that she has mental health problems and is a mother of two children. On Tuesday, Fatemeh Mohajerani, the first female spokesperson of an Iranian government since the 1979 revolution, informed the reformist Ham-Mihan daily newspaper that the woman was transferred from a police station to a treatment facility. "No legal case has been initiated for this individual." 

The government approaches this issue from a social perspective, rather than a security perspective. "We will attempt to address the problem facing this student as an individual," stated the government spokeswoman. She also mentioned that the student may be able to return to the university at a later time if it is determined that she is experiencing a mental health issue. The status is awaiting a decision from authorities, as stated by Mohajerani. 

She suggested that the university's prompt announcement of the woman's mental illness may be due to their knowledge of her through a previous university-wide psychiatric evaluation program. Amnesty International labeled the action as a "protest against abusive enforcement of compulsory hijab by security officials" at the university. They emphasized the need to safeguard her from possible mistreatment and to thoroughly investigate claims of a violent arrest in a unbiased and independent manner. This event occurs in the midst of ongoing debates surrounding mandatory hijab in Iran following widespread protests in 2022 and 2023 following the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody.