By 
06-11-2024
Benedetta De Rosa
Women’s Rights Researcher,
Global Human Rights Defence.
For 45 years, Iran has had the Hijab law, which not only makes it compulsory, but also dictates the correct manner in which it should be worn. Those who opposed it paid with their lives. Just two years ago, Mahsa Amini was beaten to death by the Iranian moral police for wearing the veil wrongly, sparking the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and the rebellions against the regime and its repressions. That outrage, however, did not end women’s fight for freedom over their own bodies.
On October 2nd, 2024 it happened again. Members of Iran’s Basij militia within Tehran university grounds assaulted and harassed the student Ahou Daryaei for her clothing, which was considered inappropriate to Islamic ethics. Shortly afterwards, Ahou Daryaei decided to protest by taking off her clothes and staying in her underwear in the courtyard of the university with her hair loose and in plain sight on her shoulders, first sitting on a low wall and then walking among the passers-by. Many have immortalised the girl’s bravery in videos and photos that are now making the rounds of the web on a global scale, rekindling the momentum of women’s revolt and claim for their personal freedom. In a country whose main features include gender apartheid, which silences women’s voices and denies them fundamental rights, Ahou Daryaei sent a clear message: that women’s struggle begins with the liberation of their own bodies. She has stripped away historical repressions and written and unwritten laws that drain women from day to day, courageously walking among the very people who nurture those conditions.
In the country, such an act is put on par with a psychiatric disorder of a “mentally ill woman”, which is a common enough label in Iran to repress women who rebel. In fact, it is believed that the young woman’s fate is to be forcibly locked up in a psychiatric centre. However, there is no certainty about this, all that is known is what can be seen in some of the videos showing plainclothes officers escorting the girl in an unmarked vehicle. Thus, Ahou Daryaei’s position and condition remain unknown at present, but the world will continue to say her name, Ahou Daryaei.
Sources and further readings
Gadeschi E. F. (2024, 4 November). Cosa ne sarà ora della ragazza iraniana che si è spogliata per protesta a Theran, ELLE. Retrieved on November 6th, 2024, from <https://www.elle.com/it/magazine/women-in-society/a62800597/iran-ragazza-reggiseno-protesta-sparita-cosa-e-successo/>.
Team MTHS (2024, 3 November). Young Iranian Woman Arrested After Publicly Removing Clothes in Bold Protest, More to Her Story. Retrieved on November 6th, 2024, from <https://www.moretoherstory.org/reporting/6c5y4nqab4k902k5sc176mv02mc995>.
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