Iran spares female student who stripped in defiance of charges citing her 'mental illness'

Iran’s judiciary said Tuesday it has not issued an indictment against a student who stripped off to her underwear at a university in Tehran.

“Considering that she was sent to the hospital, and it was found that she was ill, she was handed over to her family… and no judicial case has been filed against her,” judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told a news conference, without naming her.

Earlier in November, footage of a female student circulated online, showing her sitting and briefly walking at Islamic Azad University in Tehran before stripping down to her underwear.

The move sparked harsh reactions from officials in Iran, where covering the neck and head and dressing modestly became mandatory for women following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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The Iranian embassy in Paris said in statement afterwards that initial indications showed the “student was suffering from family problems and a fragile psychological condition”.

“Signs of abnormal behaviour had already been observed by those close to her, including family members and students in her year,” it said.

‘Prostitution’  

Science Minister Hossein Simaei, who oversees universities, described the student’s act as “immoral and uncustomary”, while adding that she had not been expelled from her university.

“Those who republished this footage spread prostitution,” said Simaei, adding such incidents “should not be encouraged as they are neither morally nor religiously justified."

London-based human rights group Amnesty International said the woman was “violently arrested after she removed her clothes in protest against abusive enforcement of compulsory veiling by security officials."

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Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani denied both the violent nature of her arrest and any connection of the incident to the Islamic dress code.

“The issue was actually something else,” she said, noting that “this level of nudity is not accepted anywhere."

The university said later that the student involved had been handed over to the police and found to be “under severe pressure and suffering from a mental disorder”.

Months-long nationwide protests shook Iran following the September 2022 death in custody of 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini over an alleged violation the dress code for women.

Hundreds of people, including dozens of security personnel, were killed in the unrest and thousands of demonstrators were arrested.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff.)