A woman at a university in Iran stripped down to her underwear in an apparent act of protest after university security forces violently stopped her for not wearing a headscarf.

Video from Saturday’s incident shows a naked woman sitting next to a staircase in an open area of ​​a branch of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran. The woman is then seen walking on the pavement and crossing the street, before being surrounded by security forces and seemingly pushed into a car.

Not wearing a headscarf is a punishable crime under the Iranian regime’s sharia-based laws. The law is overseen by a task force known as the morality police, which patrols the cities. In universities, students are monitored by security forces in colleges regarding the mandatory headscarf.

According to the Iranian newspaper’s Telegram channel, the woman was first taken to a police station and then transferred to a psychiatric center. farhikhtegan. According to Farhikhtegan’s report, the university spokesperson said that the “real purpose” of the action was still being investigated.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a history of taking protesters to psychiatric facilities, claiming that their acts of resistance were due to their unstable mental health.

While the video of the woman, whose identity has not been officially disclosed, has spread widely on social media since Sunday, citizens called for answers regarding what happened to the woman. Many people and activists praise her for her “courage” and “resistance” and share the video with the hashtag “Women, Life, Freedom”, the slogan for women’s rights in Iran.

Objecting to the regime’s decision to take the woman to a psychiatric clinic, an account on

Amnesty International called on authorities to release the woman immediately. Publish on X He called on authorities to “protect him from torture and other ill-treatment until he is released” and ensure he can contact his family and a lawyer.

“Allegations of beatings and sexual violence against him during his arrest need independent and impartial investigations,” the human rights non-governmental organization added. “Those responsible must be held accountable”

Mai Sato, United Nations special rapporteur on the Islamic Republic of Iran, shared a post on the subject. x account He said he would be monitoring the incident closely, including how authorities respond to it.

Since deadly nationwide protests in September 2022, a growing number of Iranian women are opposing laws requiring hijab.

The protests followed the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurdish woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not fully complying with hijab rules. The death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in police custody triggered the longest anti-government protests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

human rights groups It is stated that more than 500 people were killed in these demonstrations and more than 20,000 people were arrested, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Amini became a symbol of resistance, sparking the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, encouraging protests and rallying all generations and genders on the streets to seek freedom from a violent regime.