IRAN: According to reports in the media and online videos, a young woman on Saturday stripped to her underwear at an Iranian university in apparent protest against the country’s strict religious dress code.
A video posted via virtual entertainment showed safety officers at a part of the Islamic Azad College confining the unidentified lady.
“At the police station […] it was found that she was under severe mental pressure and had a mental disorder,” university spokesperson Amir Mahjob stated on X.
But some people on social media said that the woman’s action was a planned protest.
Lei La, a user on X, wrote in a comment to the video, “For most women, being […] in their underwear in public is one of their worst nightmares […] This is a reaction to the (authorities’) stupid insistence on the mandatory hijab.”
The woman’s fate was unknown, but the popular daily Hamshahri stated on its website: According to an informed source, “the perpetrator of this act has severe mental problems, and she will most likely be transferred to a mental hospital after investigations.”
After nationwide protests in September 2022 following the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman in the custody of the morality police for allegedly violating hijab rules, a growing number of women have defied authorities by removing their veils.
