Iran: The first official government reaction regarding the student – She is a disturbed individual receiving treatment

The young Iranian woman, who publicly stripped down to her underwear as a form of protest while walking on the grounds of an Iranian university, does not pose a security issue but is described as a “disturbed individual” receiving treatment, according to a government spokesperson.

The young woman undressed on Saturday at the Islamic Azad University in Tehran, an act widely regarded on social media as a protest against Iran’s strict Islamic dress code.

According to organizations that revealed the incident on Saturday, the young student was harassed by security agents who believed she was not respecting the strict mandatory Islamic dress code. She stripped down to her underwear in protest and walked in front of the university in a video that went viral, before being forcibly taken away by security agents. Her whereabouts have since been unknown.

“Instead of viewing this issue from a security perspective, it is better to see it from a social standpoint and seek to address this student’s problems as a disturbed individual,” the government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani stated today in the first official reaction to the incident. She mentioned that the young woman, who is referred to on social media as Ahu Dariayi, was transferred from the police station to a treatment center, although the type of treatment she would receive has not been disclosed. Reuters has not been able to independently identify the woman.

“It is still too early to talk about this student’s return to university. According to a video released by her husband, she needs treatment that must be completed before we take further steps,” Mohajerani stated on the government website.

The woman was arrested by the university’s security guards. A representative of the institution, Amir Mahjoub, wrote on Saturday on X (formerly Twitter) that “at the police station…it was determined that (the woman) was under severe psychological pressure and was suffering from a mental disorder.”

More and more Iranian women across the country are defying authorities and removing their Islamic hijabs in protest following the death in September 2022 of young Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. Amini died while in custody of the morality police for violating hijab regulations. Security forces violently suppressed the protests that followed.

The NGO Amnesty International wrote on X that a young woman was “forcibly arrested on November 2 when she stripped down to protest against the mandatory wearing of the hijab by security officials at the Islamic Azad University in Tehran,” and called for her immediate release.

Yesterday, the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported that those reacting on social media belong to “the same anti-Iranian movement that criticized the case of Mahsa Amini in 2022.” The unofficial website Khabaronline reported that the government spokesperson said that no charges have been brought against the arrested student.

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