Iranian student in underwear protest moved to ‘specialised care centre’: Iran Embassy in Paris

A woman holds a placard reading "Women, pioneering front for democracy" as she takes part in a protest gathering called by the "Woman Life Freedom Collective" (Femme Vie Liberte) and the Association Phenix, in support of the Iranian student arrested after stripping to her underwear in Tehran. Photo / AFP

• An Iranian student was transferred to a “specialised care” centre after protesting harassment over her clothing.
• Activists fear she may be confined to a psychiatric institution, as has happened before.
• Amnesty International called the reports "alarming," noting Iran's history of equating dress defiance with "mental disorders."

An Iranian student who stripped to her underwear in Tehran to protest alleged harassment over her clothing has been transferred to a centre of “specialised care”, the Iranian Embassy in Paris said Wednesday.

“The student in question suffers from psychological fragility and was transferred by an ambulance of the emergency social services to a specialised care centre,” it said, without giving further details about the centre.

Concern has grown over the whereabouts and welfare of the young woman, with activists worried authorities could confine her in a psychiatric institution.

The statement from the Paris embassy described her as a mother of two children who was separated from her husband.

“Once she has recovered she will resume her studies at the university. Although, of course, the final decision rests with the institutions concerned,” the embassy said.

Persian-language media outlets outside Iran have reported that university security guards harassed her over what she was wearing, ripping her headscarf and clothes. She then took most of them off in protest.

Footage shows her defiantly walking down the street before plain clothes agents bundle her into an unmarked car and drive away.

Activists say there are past examples of Iran’s authorities sending women who show opposition to the Islamic system to psychiatric institutions, particularly during the 2022-2023 nationwide protests.

This image grab from a UGC video posted on November 2, 2024 and widely shared on social media, shows a female student in her underwear outside Tehran's Islamic Azad University. Photo / AFP

Amnesty International said late on Tuesday that reports she was “taken to an unnamed psychiatric hospital are very alarming”, adding that it had “previously documented how Iran’s authorities equate defying compulsory veiling with ‘mental disorders’ that need ‘treatment’”.

In Tehran, the Government has dismissed reports that the incident began with a dispute over her dress and denied she was violently arrested.

The Iranian Embassy statement said that “for her family the student needs care” and that it was essential to respect her “dignity, intimacy and private life”.

But the video of the student strolling calmly in Tehran amid other women in black Islamic chador dress has, for many, made her an icon for the struggle of Iranian women for their rights.

Under the dress code mandatory in Iran, women must wear a headscarf and loose-fitting clothes in public.

US-based opposition campaigner Masih Alinejad, who for years has pushed for the abolition of the obligatory headscarf in Iran, said she had been told by associates of the woman that she was “not only mentally sound but also a lively, courageous woman filled with joy and vitality”.