Female Students Subjected To Physical Inspections During Exams

Security forces have disrupted end-of-semester exams, invasively searching students and threatening women who did not wear headscarves strictly in Tehran.

The Student Union Council of Iran said on its Telegram channel that the university's security officers "repeatedly disrupted order" by taking photos of students and enforcing strict hijab rules.

A warning was also issued saying that their answer sheets would be withheld if they failed to comply, the report added.

Metal detectors were used by security forces to search both male and female students and those with metallic objects, including belts, were not allowed to enter exam rooms.

In recent months, security and intelligence organisations have increased pressure on students for hijab amidst a nationwide hijab rebellion in universities across the country, leading to the suspension of possibly hundreds of students.

Last week, students across the country and various social and political groups expressed solidarity with the students at University of Art in Tehran who have been staging protests against stricter hijab.

University of Art students have been protesting new rules that require women to wear a pullover headscarf with stitched front (called Maghna’e in Iran) which is like a nun’s coif, completely covering the head and the neck. Failing to comply, the university has said, would result in suspension.

Anti-hijab and anti-regime protests erupted in Iran in September after Mahsa Amini, a young woman arrested in the street by the notorious ‘morality police’ and received fatal head injuries during her detention, died in hospital.