Activists Fear for Woman After Her Protest in Iran

A young woman filmed walking around an Iranian university campus in her underwear has been adopted as a new hero of the Women, Life, Freedom movement that erupted with Mahsa Amini's 2022 death in police custody. But that's no safe position to be in at the moment. Human rights organizations fear the woman forced into an unmarked vehicle at Tehran's Islamic Azad University last week—identified as 30-year-old Ahou Daryaei—was kidnapped, labeled mentally unstable, and taken to a state-run psychiatric hospital, where other protesters seeking the expansion of women's rights allege they were shackled, drugged, and tortured, per the Guardian.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran calls it a "kidnapping," noting Iran's regime is increasingly putting protesters in psychiatric institutions to silence dissent. "This practice is a blatantly unlawful move to discredit activists by labelling them mentally unstable," says executive director Hadi Ghaemi. Amnesty International says the situation is "alarming" as there's evidence the regime uses electric shocks, beatings, and chemicals on protesters in these facilities. Witness reports suggest campus security confronted the woman about her outfit before she stripped down to her underwear in protest. A vehicle was later seen pulling up beside her before people got out and forced her inside, per Iran International.

"It's crossed my mind many times to just remove all my clothes and go 'there!' But I've never been brave enough," a 29-year-old woman tells the outlet. "We're squeezed enough already, financially, politically, and socially. And then some moron stops you to tell you how to dress." "We are in awe of her bravery," a university student in Tehran tells the Guardian. "This is what we are fighting for, to have the freedom to choose." But in the view of the regime, "a sane woman is an obedient woman," a woman tells Iran International. "You're crazy if you rebel." The outlet sums up the social media response thusly: "If Ahou is crazy, we are all mad." (More Iranian women stories.)