 "Where is Ahoo Daryaei, Iranian woman arrested after stripping at university?")
Fears are growing about the fate of the young Iranian college student who stripped off her clothes at a university to protest the strict dress code.
The woman, identified as Ahoo Daryaei, had been harassed inside Tehran’s prestigious Islamic Azad University by members of the Basij paramilitary force.
The forces ripped Daryaei’s headscarf and clothes – leading to her staging a protest by stripping to her underwear outside the university.
This comes as just the latest incident highlighting Iran’s controversial dress code for women and the role of its ‘morality police.’
But where is Daryaei? What do we know about her whereabouts?
Let’s take a closer look:
Where is Daryaei?
Daryaei has not been seen in public since she was bundled into a car by men in plain clothes and driven off to an undisclosed location.
ABC quoted the Telegram channel for the Iranian newspaper Farhikhtegan as saying that Daryaei was first taken to a police station.
Azad University spokesperson Amir Mahjob earlier wrote on X that “at the police station… it was found that she was under severe mental pressure and had a mental disorder.”
Mahjob was quoted as saying that Daryaei, a mother of two, was suffering from mental issues.
CNN quoted Mahjob as saying she “was under severe mental pressure and had a mental disorder.”
Daryaei is said to be separated from her husband.
Mahjob claimed the university’s security team acted “after the indecent act by one of the students.”
The outlet quoted Farhikhtegan as reporting that Daryaei was then admitted to a mental health facility.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsA spokesperson for the university said the “real motive” of the act is still under investigation, Farhikhtegan reported.
But EuroNews quoted other news sources as saying that Daryaei was taken into custody by intelligence agents and sent to an undisclosed location.
As per ABC, protesters in Iran are often admitted by authorities to psychiatric centers where they are diagnosed as being “unstable.”
Under the dress code mandatory in Iran, women must wear a headscarf and loose-fitting clothes in public.
“Iran’s authorities must immediately and unconditionally release the university student who was violently arrested after she removed her clothes in protest against abusive enforcement of compulsory veiling by security officials,” Amnesty International said.
The London-based rights group, which has in the past years chronicled allegations of abuse against women in Iranian prisons, added: “Pending her release, authorities must protect her from torture and other ill-treatment and ensure access to family and lawyer.”
It added that “allegations of beatings and sexual violence against her during arrest need independent and impartial investigations”.
Iran’s conservative Fars news agency confirmed the incident in a report, publishing a picture with the student heavily blurred out.
It said the student had worn “inappropriate clothes” in class and “stripped” after being warned by security guards to comply with the dress code.
Citing “witnesses”, it said the security guards spoke “calmly” with the student and denied the reports that their action had been aggressive.
What happened?
Daryaei had t aken off her clothes in protest and sat outside the university dressed in just her underwear before defiantly walking in the street to the astonishment of passers-by, videos posted on social media showed.
The footage, which was first posted by Iranian student social media channel the Amir Kabir newsletter, was published by numerous Persian-language outlets, including the Hengaw rights group and Iran Wire news website, as well as Amnesty International
The footage appeared to have been shot by onlookers in a neighbouring building. Another video showed her being bundled into a car by men in plain clothes and driven off to an undisclosed location.
The Amir Kabir newsletter alleged she was beaten during the arrest.
Near-nationwide protests erupted in 2022 following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini , an Iranian Kurdish woman who had been arrested for an alleged breach of the dress code.
The protests, which saw women break taboos by removing their headscarves and on occasion even burning them, subsided in the face of a crackdown that left 551 protesters dead and thousands arrested.
“We must not leave each other to stand alone,” wrote Katayoun Riahi, an actress who backed the protests, in a post on Instagram expressing support for the student.
Hossein Ronaghi, a prominent Iranian activist who was jailed during the protests, in a post on X hailed the “bravery” of the student and described her action as a “cry from the bottom of the heart against the oppression that has taken the life out of people, especially women.”
Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Islamic Republic of Iran, wrote on X that she would be “monitoring this incident closely, including the authorities’ response.”
With inputs from agencies
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