Rights groups say they have serious concerns that a young Iranian woman arrested for stripping to her underwear may be tortured after being transferred to a mental hospital by authorities.
Amnesty International said it had found evidence that the Iranian regime used electric shocks, torture, beatings and chemical substances against protesters and political prisoners who were sent to state-run mental hospitals after being described as mentally unstable. The statement said the situation faced by the young woman was “appalling”.
The young woman was arrested by police last week after a video of her walking around a university campus in Tehran in her underwear was widely circulated on social media. She is believed to have been protesting a physical attack by security on the campus of Tehran’s Islamic Azad University for failing to comply with strict dress codes imposed on all Iranian women.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) called the student’s transfer to an undisclosed mental hospital a “kidnapping” and said forced transfers of anti-regime protesters to mental health facilities were increasingly used to stifle dissent.
“Iranian authorities have systematically used involuntary psychiatric hospitalization as a tool to suppress dissent, labeling protesters mentally unstable to undermine their credibility,” said CHRI Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi.
“Transferring people participating in peaceful protests to mental hospitals is not only an act of arbitrary detention, but also constitutes a form of kidnapping. This practice is a blatantly illegal attempt to label activists as mentally unstable. Discredit them.
There have been many other high-profile cases of protesters arrested during Women, Life, Freedom demonstrations who were also sent to mental hospitals after their arrests.
After being arrested during a protest in 2022, prominent Kurdish rapper Saman Yasin was sent by authorities to Tehran’s Aminabat mental hospital, where he was allegedly tortured and forced to confession. He spent two years in prison and was released on medical leave last month.
A source close to Yassin told the Guardian: “Saman was strapped to a bed in a psychiatric center in a cruciform position for long periods of time. They gave him a heavy dose of sedatives and, although he was in a coma, The restraints on his hands and feet were not lifted.
In October 2023, Roya Zakeri, a young Iranian woman, was described by state media as mentally unwell and sent to the women’s ward of Lazi Mental Hospital after she was photographed chanting anti-regime slogans. People close to her family told the Guardian she was injected with a hypnotic drug, physically assaulted and her arms and legs were chained.
Human rights activist Azam Jangravi said Iranian authorities forced her to sign a statement saying she had mental health issues after photos of her waving a headscarf on the streets of Tehran went viral in 2018.
“When they interrogated me, they accused me of being a spy,” she said. “They asked me to write a confession stating that I regretted my protest, and that I did so because I was mentally unwell. I did not sign… During the interrogation they kept citing former political prisoners who were sent to mental hospitals examples to mock us, [telling us] “If you do not regret your act of protest, you will face the same fate. I am worried that the university student is in a very bad situation now and we must demand her release,” she said.
The Guardian spoke to young women in Iran who said they were inspired by the university student’s video, which was posted online and quickly hailed him as a new icon of Iran’s women, life and freedom movement.
“As far as I know, no one who participated in the protests and called for secession from the Islamic Republic supported her protest actions,” said Farah*, a university student in Tehran. “This is what we are fighting for, having the freedom to choose. We are in awe of her bravery. If it were up to the regime, all of us protesting would be labeled mentally ill.
Photos of the young woman were also posted by pro-regime social media accounts that spread messages about her mental health and personal life.
*name changed
