Human rights organizations are expressing concern over the fate of a student from Iran who was arrested for walking around in her underwear outside a university in Tehran. Organizations are concerned that the student may be subjected to torture at the psychiatric hospital where she was taken.

Amnesty International says it has found evidence that the Iranian regime uses electric shocks, torture and beatings on those transferred to psychiatric institutions after they are labeled mentally unstable.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) described the transfer of the student to a psychiatric hospital as “kidnapping”, saying that transferring dissidents to asylums is a common practice of silencing.

“Iranian authorities systematically use involuntary psychiatric hospitalization as a tool to suppress dissent, labeling protesters as mentally unstable in order to undermine their credibility,” said Hadi Ghaemi, head of CHRI.

“Transferring people involved in peaceful protests to psychiatric hospitals is not only an act of arbitrary detention but also a form of abduction. The practice is a blatantly illegal move that disparages activists,” he adds.

Persecuted in mental hospitals

According to CHRI, there are several cases of protesters and activists arrested in the protests over the murder of Mahsa Amini.

Saman Yassin, a well-known Kurdish rapper and outspoken critic of the regime was arrested and taken to Tehran’s Aminabad psychiatric hospital.

A source close to the rapper described to the Guardian what Yassin experienced: “Saman was tied to the bed in the psychiatric center for a long time. He was given sedatives in large doses and despite being unconscious, he remained restrained.”

Also in October 2023, Roya Zakeri, a young Iranian woman filmed shouting anti-regime slogans, was labeled mentally ill by state media and transferred to the women’s ward of Razi psychiatric hospital in October 2023. People close to her family told the Guardian that she was injected with sleeping pills, physically assaulted and had her arms and legs chained.

“We should demand her release”

Azam Jangravi, a human rights activist, said she was pressured by Iranian authorities to sign a statement saying she had mental health problems after photos were widely circulated showing her waving her hijab on a Tehran street in 2018.

“When they questioned me, they accused me of being a spy,” she said. “They wanted me to sign a confession stating that I regretted my protest and that I did it because I was mentally ill. I didn’t sign it. We are constantly mocked during interrogations by citing the examples of former political prisoners sent to these mental hospitals, telling us “if you do not regret your act of protest, you will face the same fate”. I am afraid that the student is in horrible conditions right now and we must demand her release,” he added.

“We are fighting for freedom of choice”

A student spoke to the Guardian and said she was inspired by the young woman’s decision to protest semi-naked in the street.

“We are fighting to have the freedom of choice. We are in awe of her bravery. If it were up to the regime, all of us protesting would be branded as mentally ill,” said Farah, a student at Tehran University.