Firsthand reports from contributors inside Iran
A few days after a university student in Iran was bundled into an unmarked car by security forces for removing her clothes in an apparent protest at hijab-enforcers on campus, her identity and fate remain unknown.
A few days after a university student in Iran was bundled into an unmarked car by security forces for removing her clothes in an apparent protest at hijab-enforcers on campus, her identity and fate remain unknown.
She was filmed by other students from afar as she was forcibly bundled into an unmarked car. Then came the questions. Who was she? What happened?
Little is known about her. Some users on social media have identified her as Ahou Daryaei, a senior student in French Literature. But nothing is confirmed. For now, most people call her "the girl from Science and Research,” after her school. Now, she’s become a nameless household name.
“I’ve been there many times, just that one step away from losing it,” says Fatemeh, 29, who runs a small business from home. “Life is hard for many of us. We’re squeezed enough already, financially, politically and socially. And then some moron stops you to tell you how to dress. It’s crossed my mind many times to just remove all my clothes and go ‘there!’ but I’ve never been brave enough.”
This is a sentiment shared by many Iranian women on social media. If Ahou is crazy, we are all mad, is a widely shared theme.
Witness reports, including even one carried by IRGC-linked Fars News, say that campus security confronted her about her outfit. In protest, she stripped to her underwear and walked around the campus. The rest, and her eventual detention was captured on mobile phones.
“After being handed over to the police by university security, she is now hospitalized in a psychiatric facility," wrote the daily Farheekhtegan, affiliated with the parent university of the college she attended. The report denied any altercation between her and the campus security.
“The authorities call dissenters crazy and their treatment is torture,” says Bahram, 32, a charity worker and activist. “They bank on the social stigma associated with mental illness. But it’s no longer effective."
"They said Vida Movahed was mentally ill, and look what happened: women and girls followed her steps and turned her act of solidarity into a widespread movement against the mandatory hijab,” he said.
Vida Movahed was the woman who in December 2017 climbed up a utility box in central Tehran, put her white scarf on a stick, and waved it in complete silence. This was four years before the widespread protests that followed the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, sparking the movement now known as the Woman, Life, Freedom.
Soraya, a 36-year old nurse, sees the Girl from Science and Research as yet another link in the chain of events that is transforming Iran’s society. “I remember the day the video of Vida on that box went viral,” she says. “It was hard to believe. And it’s hard to believe it was only seven years ago. Stroll in the same street today and a girl with no headcover walks by you every other minute.”
Public attitudes toward the hijab - and religion, in general - has shifted dramatically in the last decade. In a state-sponsored nationwide survey conducted after the 2022 protests, 72% of respondents had said they favored a secular government .The findings were supposed to be classified but were leaked. So those in power know. They can see, but refuse to believe, let alone concede. They’d rather twist reality.
“Of course they say Ahou has mental issues. They said it about Vida too,” Soraya adds. “In their minds a sane woman is an obedient woman. You’re crazy if you rebel. Homa Darabi was dubbed crazy many years before Vida."
Darabi was a child psychiatrist and a university professor in Tehran. She was banished from academia for her views on the hijab and she set herself on fire in protest in 1994.
“You can only truly understand Homa, Vida or Ahou if you live this madness that pushes us women to the brink everyday,” Soraya says.
The Islamic Republic doubled down on the hijab after the 2022 protests. Women are routinely cautioned and detained if their outfit is deemed inappropriate. Cars are impounded if spotted with hijab-free passengers.
A female student wandering around campus in her underwear is not a scene you see everyday in the West. In Iran, where patriarchy is codified, it’s an even greater shocker. Not everybody is supportive. Some - especially older people - see the act as excessive and provocative.
“Whatever the circumstances, one should not give the government an excuse for more repression,” Sara says her mother told her. She’s a university student herself. “My mum, bless her, does not have to pass by those beasts' booth every morning to attend a class.”
“What disappointed me was the lack of support for her,” Sara adds. “In the mobile footage, you can see dozens of bystanders, students supposedly. They could have at least attempted to protect her and prevent her arrest.”
The reaction - or lack thereof - of those seen in the footage has sparked mixed reactions among Iranians. Some say men have become mature enough to avoid staring at a half-naked woman, while others attribute it to fear or indifference.
“I don’t know what I would have done if I had been there at that moment. I’d like to think I wouldn't stand by, but who knows,” said Masoud, 48, who co-owns a mechanic shop .“During the 2022 protests, everybody would rush to help those who were being taken by the thugs. But that was a unique moment maybe. A student witnessing Ahou being taken away knows that getting involved could ruin the future they’re toiling to build. Life here is hard enough as it is.”
Everybody here is anxious. It’s either money, health, or war. You might expect the government to give people a break on their looks. But you’d be wrong. They fear defiant women more than they fear Israel. Perhaps they should.
