The renowned Iranian woman who stripped to her underwear in an apparent anti-hijab protest at a university in Tehran will not face charges, Iranian authorities say, the BBC reports.
Earlier in November, a video went viral on social media capturing the moment the woman, named by BBC Persian as Ahoo Daryaei, undressed on a university campus before being forcibly detained.
A spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary said the woman had been treated in hospital and returned to her family.
Her detention drew international condemnation, with Amnesty International among those calling for her immediate and unconditional release.
“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 said on Tuesday.
A student movement organization first published the video of the arrest, reporting that Ms Daryaei had an altercation with security agents over not wearing a headscarf, leading to her undressing during the scuffle.
Iranian authorities at the time said Ms Daryaei was “sick” and had been taken to a psychiatric ward.
This move, presented as an act of compassion, has been labelled by activists as a strategy to delegitimize dissent by framing protesters as mentally ill.
Daryaei’s case is the latest example of what critics call the Iranian regime’s tactic of using mental health claims to undermine women’s rights activism. “This is how the Islamic Republic tries to discredit women, by questioning their mental health,” said Azam Jangravi, an activist who fled Iran after her own anti-hijab protest in 2018.
Source: The BBC
