International UPDATE: Iranian Woman Strips to Bra and Pants in Protest, Released Without Charge After Family Refuse to Declare Her Mentally Ill

[filthybliss]

I think its pretty context dependent. The Iranian state beating women to death over improper hijab is depraved and certainly worse than any Islamophobia a Muslim in the West experiences but also there are and have been genocides against Muslims like the historic Circassian genocide and the current Rohingya genocide and I would say those are worse than Iranian hijab laws.

True, can't forget about the Uyghurs either.

 

[Fossor]

 

[LeonardoBjj]

Fears grow that woman arrested for undressing in Iran could be tortured in psychiatric unit​

Protesters and political prisoners are being drugged, tortured and beaten in state-run institutions, say rights groups

Deepa Parent

Human rights organisations say they are gravely concerned that a young Iranian woman arrested for stripping down to her underwear could be subjected to torture after she was transferred to a psychiatric hospital by the authorities.

Amnesty International said it had found evidence that the Iranian regime used electric shocks, torture, beatings and chemical substances on protesters and political prisoners taken to state-run psychiatric institutions after being called mentally unstable. It said the situation facing the young woman was “alarming”.

Video of the young woman, who has not been formally identified, walking around a university campus in Tehran in her underwear was widely circulated on social media last week before she was seen being arrested by police officers. She is believed to have been protesting at being physically assaulted by campus security guards at the Islamic Azad University in Tehran for failing to comply with the strict dress code imposed on all Iranian women.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) called the student’s transfer to an undisclosed psychiatric facility a “kidnapping”, saying the use of forced transfer of anti-regime protesters to mental health facilities was being increasingly used to silence dissent.

“Iranian authorities systematically use involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation as a tool to suppress dissent, branding protesters as mentally unstable to undermine their credibility,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of CHRI.


“Transferring individuals who participate in peaceful protests to psychiatric hospitals represents not only an act of arbitrary detention but also constitutes a form of kidnapping. This practice is a blatantly unlawful move to discredit activists by labelling them mentally unstable.”

There have been a number of other high-profile cases of protesters arrested during the Woman, Life, Freedom demonstrations who were also committed to psychiatric hospitals after their arrest.

Saman Yasin, a well-known Kurdish rapper, was taken by the authorities to Tehran’s Aminabad psychiatric hospital after his arrest at a protest in 2022, where he was allegedly tortured and coerced into a confession. He spent two years in prison before being released on medical furlough last month.

A source close to Yasin told the Guardian: “Saman was tied to the bed in the psychiatric centre in a cruciform position for a long time. They administered high-dose sedatives and despite his unconscious state, the restraints on his hands and feet were not removed.”

In October 2023, Roya Zakeri, a young Iranian woman who was filmed chanting anti-regime slogans, was called mentally unwell by state media and taken to the women’s ward of Razi psychiatric hospital. The Guardian has been told by people close to her family that she was injected with sleeping agents, physically assaulted and had her arms and feet chained.

Rights activist Azam Jangravi protesting in Tehran in 2018. Photograph: supplied

Azam Jangravi, a human rights activist, said she was pressed by Iranian authorities to sign a statement saying she had mental health issues after photographs of her waving her hijab over her head on a Tehran street were widely circulated in 2018.

“When they interrogated me, they accused me of being a spy,” she said. “They wanted me to write a confession stating that I regretted my protest and that I did it because I was mentally unwell. I didn’t sign it … They keep taunting us during interrogations by citing the examples of former political prisoners who were sent to these psychiatric hospitals, [telling us] ‘If you don’t regret your act of protest, you’ll face the same fate.’ I fear the university student is under horrific conditions right now and we must demand her release,” she said.

The Guardian spoke to young women in Iran who said they been inspired by the video of the university student, who was rapidly hailed as a new icon of Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom movement after the video was posted online.

“Nobody I know who protested and has called for freedom from the Islamic Republic does not support her act of protest,”
said Farah*, a university student in Tehran. “This is what we are fighting for, to have the freedom to choose. We are in awe of her bravery. If it were up to the regime, all of us who protested would be branded as mentally unwell.”

Images of the young woman have also been posted by pro-regime social media accounts, which have circulated messages about her mental health and personal life.

*Name has been changed

https://www.theguardian.com/global-...esters-psychiatric-institutions-rights-groups

 

[fedoriswar37]

It's a still shot i understand and not video, but it's pretty funny how you've got something that would be abnormal even in western culture happening in Iranian society and everyone around her is basically pretending nothing weird is going on. Like, dude with his back to her. Women in hijabs right near her pretending she's not there. 2 dudes sitting on a bench ignoring her. The scene looks surreal because of the perceived utter indifference of everyone around her.

I'd assume they're in fear of being seen even interacting with her.

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

This is like an american lady protesting fast food consumption in Louisiana. Why bother. If you dont like how things are, just leave. You are not changing shit in a place like that. Nor will anyone remember your "courage" after a few weeks.

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

wow those people around her look horrified and invested

 

[The Diplomat]

She's a bad ass. Pretty awesome, and to the Iranian powers that be, if she isn't murdered by sundown, I'd like to buy her (for her own safety)

 

[mkess101]

I'd assume they're in fear of being seen even interacting with her.

Agree, but my instinct then would be to move away from her. Not stand a few feet away pretending she wasn't there.

 

[avenue94]

This is like an american lady protesting fast food consumption in Louisiana. Why bother. If you dont like how things are, just leave. You are not changing shit in a place like that. Nor will anyone remember your "courage" after a few weeks.

Cuz instances like this can pile up and actually cause very big changes? Not to mention people do all sorts of stuff in the moment.

 

[Andy Capp]

how are "we" supposed to "support" women in other countries protesting?"

The same way "we" presume to judge how they should protest.

 

[Andy Capp]

Agree, but my instinct then would be to move away from her. Not stand a few feet away pretending she wasn't there.

I see it as a form of support. No one is running screaming to the authorities. It's acceptance of a kind that shows solidarity with her, in my view. I think it's quite cool and respectful.

 

[WhiteMousse]

It's a still shot i understand and not video, but it's pretty funny how you've got something that would be abnormal even in western culture happening in Iranian society and everyone around her is basically pretending nothing weird is going on. Like, dude with his back to her. Women in hijabs right near her pretending she's not there. 2 dudes sitting on a bench ignoring her. The scene looks surreal because of the perceived utter indifference of everyone around her.

Was probably snapped after the initial reaction and people are averting their eyes either because of discomfort or because they're not really sure how to react.

If I had any control of the situation and was concerned for her wellbeing I'd try to find out precisely where the "mental health facility" is to which she's supposedly been taken.

 

[mkess101]

I see it as a form of support. No one is running screaming to the authorities. It's acceptance of a kind that shows solidarity with her, in my view. I think it's quite cool and respectful.

Could be. Lying if I said I have a clue about that situation and how those people view it.

 

[Belaya Smert]

Probably would

 

[KnightTemplar]

A brave woman. Iranian police have murdered people for less.

 

[Andy Capp]

Could be. Lying if I said I have a clue about that situation and how those people view it.

I don't claim to be terribly knowledgeable about it either but If any of them held views that were in line with the regime why not rat her out? That's really my only reason for contending the opposite, i.e. that they have similar views to hers.

 

[Lycandroid]

This is like an american lady protesting fast food consumption in Louisiana. Why bother. If you dont like how things are, just leave. You are not changing shit in a place like that. Nor will anyone remember your "courage" after a few weeks.

Yeah just leave Iran. Super easy, barely an inconvenience.

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

Cuz instances like this can pile up and actually cause very big changes? Not to mention people do all sorts of stuff in the moment.

Not there it wont. I dont think you understand that some people and places will not change in our lifetime or the next. Live be their rules or move on. Simple.

 

[avenue94]

Not there it wont. I dont think you understand that some people and places will not change in our lifetime or the next. Live be their rules or move on. Simple.

Did you see the Tunisian Revolution coming in your life time?

 

[avenue94]

Yeah just leave Iran. Super easy, barely an inconvenience.

Something tells me some of the folks who think people should jist leave bad places also would mot want those people coming to the US, cuz they're from shit holes lol