A young woman stripped to her underwear at an Iranian university on Saturday in an apparent protest against the country’s strict religious dress code, according to online videos and media reports.

Click to see more

A video posted on social media showed security guards at a branch of the Islamic Azad University detaining the unidentified woman.

University spokesperson Amir Mahjob said on X that “at the police station […] it was found that she was under severe mental pressure and had a mental disorder”.

But some social media users suggested the woman’s action was a deliberate protest.

“For most women, being […] in their underwear in public is one of their worst nightmares […] This is a reaction to the (authorities’) stupid insistence on the mandatory hijab,” Lei La, a user on X, said in a comment accompanying the video.

The fate of the woman was not known but the mass-circulation daily Hamshahri said on its website: “An informed source said […] the perpetrator of this act has severe mental problems and, after investigations, she will most likely be transferred to a mental hospital.”

Growing numbers of women have defied authorities by discarding their veils after nationwide protests that followed the death in September 2022 of a young Iranian Kurdish woman in the custody of the morality police for allegedly violating hijab rules.

Security forces violently put down the revolt.