Amnesty International: A student was arrested in Iran after being subjected to beatings and sexual violence

A female student stripped to her underwear outside her university in a protest against the country’s strict Islamic dress code.

A video circulating on social media and shared by rights group Amnesty International shows the woman sitting outside the university in her underwear and with her hair uncovered.

She gestures toward her fellow students, many of whom are female and wearing headscarves, before strolling around the premises.

Another video shows her walking down a road, still in a state of undress, before a group of men surround her, bundle her into a car, and drive away.

Amnesty said the woman had been “violently arrested” after she protested the “abusive enforcement” of the dress code at Tehran’s Islamic Azad University.

The woman had previously been harassed by members of the Basij, an Iranian volunteer paramilitary group, inside the university’s grounds, according to an Iranian student social media channel, the Amir Kabir newsletter. It claimed members of the force had ripped her headscarf and torn her clothes. Citing eyewitnesses, state-run Fars news agency reported that the student took off her clothes after two security personnel “calmly talked” to her and warned her about flouting the dress code. The university’s public relations director said the woman was suffering from mental health issues.

Amnesty called for the immediate and unconditional release of the Azad University student and demanded she be given access to her family and lawyer.

“Allegations of beatings and sexual violence against her during the arrest need independent and impartial investigations. Those responsible must be held to account,” the organization said in a statement.