Courage in the streets: iranian woman defies morality police with powerful protest

In his underwear, out at the University in Iran in a protest against the country's strict Islamic dress code. She was arrested and there is no further news. In Iran, taking off the hijab in public is an act of rebellion that goes beyond simply rejecting an item of clothing: it is a declaration of identity, dignity and self-determination

Walking up and down a street in her underwear, arms crossed and hair unbound, a young woman in Tehran seemed to dare the authorities to take her away with a silent, brazen “come and get me.” Images of her protest, near the university campus, spread like wildfire across the world after she allegedly stripped down in response to harassment from Iran’s morality police over her “improper” hijab.

In one, she is seen walking down a street, still naked, until a group of men surrounds her and shoves her into a car, where they speed away.

Two days later, she is still missing. Amnesty International’s Iran section has called for her immediate release. Meanwhile, there were some disturbing statements reported from Amir Mahjob, public relations director at Azad University, who seemed to insinuate in a social media posting that the student—who is separated from her husband and has two children— “suffers from a mental disorder“.

The Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release the university student who was violently arrested on November 2 after she took off her clothes in protest at abusive implementation of mandatory hijab laws by security forces at Tehran’s Islamic Azad University said Amnesty International.

Morality police and a history of repression

In 2006, Iran formed its morality police, or Gasht-e-Ershad, in order to further implement the strict hijab laws of the 1980s. They make patrols of public space, especially schools and universities, and monitor women’s attire, thus enhancing harassment and violence against women and girls in public.

Global outrage over these abuses reached an all-time high in September 2022, after the morality police arrested and beat Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old visiting Tehran from Iran’s Kurdistan region, for her “incorrect” hijab-wearing. A few days following her detention, Amini died. The incident sparked nationwide protests under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” against obligatory hijab laws along with other discriminatory laws that have not been changed yet but attracted international attention.

Hijab: From traditional symbol to emblem of resistance

Traditionally, a covering for hair and neck, the hijab is an iconic fixture in Islamic culture, representing modesty and faith in many nations. In Iran, however, it has become a tool of the state-a means through which the regime is able to control women’s bodies and squash individual freedom. In this context of the mandatory hijab, this is more than a religious dictate; it is a political statement of the power that confines women to standards imposed by the regime. For many, it has become a symbol of oppression-a fight for self-determination beyond anything to do with clothes.

Since Mahsa Amini’s death, taking off one’s hijab is a new kind of gesture. Such acts have now converted into a way of reclaiming dignity and self-identification by women against autocratic control. By removing the hijab, they challenge not only a dress code but an ideological regime of restrictions that hamper their freedoms.

Therefore, undressing has turned to be the strongest utterance of refusal of objectification and a bold self-declaration of the right to decide upon.

The roots of Iranian resistance and recent protests

Resistance to compulsory hijab has, in fact, its origins in the very Islamic Revolution of 1979, when thousands of women protested against new restrictions on clothing. Since then, there have been repeated acts of defiance, often suppressed. But the 2022 protests proved a turning point, with Iranian women-leading men and youth across classes in a very public expression of dissent.

Unlike protests of the past, today’s digital platforms magnify their voices beyond the borders of Iran. Images and videos showing women removing their hijabs and facing down police have generated a global sense of solidarity over their determination for freedom.

It publicly removed the hijab in Iran and symbolically and materially turned that gesture into an act of protest-a manifestation of resistance by human dignity against oppression. These women are demanding freedom to dress as they like but also to be seen, heard, and respected as autonomous individuals. The cry for rebellion has echoed across the world.

But here is the question: How much really changed?