Crazy or courageous?
Iran has been forever known for designing rules and systems that are suffocating and repressing. Especially when it comes to women’s dress codes, the country has forever remained in controversies. But this is not the 19th Century and women these days can stand up for their rights – even if it means standing naked! That’s exactly what happened in this incident that has recently gained a lot of traction online.
An incident recently came to light from Mashhad, Iran when a video went viral on the Internet showing a woman protesting the strict clothing laws in a ‘shocking’ manner. The footage circulating on social media shows an Iranian woman stripping in public and climbing naked onto the bonnet of a police vehicle to express her outrage against the strict Hijab laws. This anger seems to be growing from the recent legislation approved by the Iranian lawmakers. This legislation prevents women and girls from ‘showing their hair, arms, or legs’, and proposes severe penalties on those who ‘don’t fully cover themselves’.
The bill, however, has been postponed, but public dissent remains quite high, and oftentimes, people can go to such extreme lengths to showcase their disapproval. In a similar case, this video of the woman from the second-largest city of Iran has gone viral. Shared by an Iranian journalist, the footage captures the woman stripping in the middle of a crowded street and yelling at the armed male police officers. She then climbs up the bonnet of the police vehicle. She then sits ahead of the windscreen spreading her legs wide apart. Ashamed, a male police officer is seen reluctant to deal with the woman.
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The daring protest has shocked netizens while the armed police officer, as clearly seen in the video, is hesitant to go near the woman to detain her due to her nakedness. While the exact intention behind her bizarre actions remains unknown, her ‘bold’ protest has garnered mixed reactions from social media. Some called it a ‘mental health issue’ while others pointed out her ‘raw courage’ of resistance against the oppressing laws.
Reportedly, the woman’s husband shared that ‘she is under medical care’ after the incident. But her actions in the clip seem more like a form of protest than a state of mind.
