A female student at a university in Tehran stripped to her underwear in an act of protest after being harassed by campus security officers over her hijab.
Videos circulating widely on social media show the unidentified student sitting outside the campus in her underwear while the security guards surrounded her.
Another video shows her walking around the campus in her bra and knickers while stunned fellow students film her on their mobile phones.
Her act of resistance began after a confrontation inside Azad University’s science and research centre on Saturday, when security forces physically attacked the student because she was not wearing a headscarf.
In response to having her clothes torn, she chose to remove her remaining garments as a protest, according to Iranian student social media news channel, the Amir Kabir newsletter and witnesses who spoke to The Telegraph.
Multiple witnesses confirmed her subsequent detention by the authorities. Video footage showed security officers abducting her from the campus.
About 10 security guards were captured on video forcibly bundling the young woman into a vehicle. The footage showed a group of officers overwhelming her before she was detained.
“Oh God, how many of them are attacking just one person?” one onlooker was heard saying. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” another said.
“Around noon, near the entrance of the faculty, I saw a girl being grabbed and forcibly taken by security forces,” one witness told The Telegraph from Tehran.
“She wasn’t wearing a headscarf. Then they reached the security building near the entrance, where a male and a female security guard grabbed her and tried to take her into the office with force.
“She resisted, and her hoodie was torn off her body, it made her very angry and she took off the rest of her clothes.
“She angrily yelled at them and took off her trousers - she sat outside the campus for a few minutes and the officer became more aggressive.
“I couldn’t see much but, a few minutes after she started walking, several plain-clothes officers ambushed her and forced her into a car.”
Student media outlets reported that she suffered injuries during the arrest, including severe head trauma after being struck against a vehicle. Witnesses said traces of blood were visible at the scene.