Who is Ahoo Daryaei? Know Where Is Iranian Woman Who Stripped In Anti-Hijab Protest Now

Tehran: An Iranian student who went viral globally protesting against the Islamic Republic's hijab policy was beaten, restrained, forcibly hospitalized and psychiatricly injected nearly two years ago, according to reports. Nearly one year and nine months later, a the report comes at a time when Iran is trying to recover from the US and Israeli attacks.

What is the place of the incident?

In November 2024, photos of Ahoo Daryaei, 32, walking through Islamic Azad University in Tehran  in her underwear and bra went viral internationally.

The videos were viewed online by millions at the time and human rights groups had issued a warning that she might be subjected to retaliation by Iranian authorities. She was later said to have mental health issues.

What is the issue?

The incident started when the hijab or headscarf fell from Daryaei's head as she was strolling through the university while checking her phone, according to the new report, which cited a close friend who spoke anonymously.

The friend reported the morality police yelling at her, grabbing her by the shoulders and attempting to drag her into an internal room to punish female students who violated rules on dress, while also pulling her clothing.

Why did the woman take her clothes off?

Then, in a gesture of desperation, Daryaei stripped herself down and started taking off her clothes.

The friend reported that she was attacked and "got really angry. “She didn't want them to touch her clothes, but they were touching them, so she became so angry that she began to take them off herself.”

“If you're stripping me, I'm stripping you,” was the message that could be distilled from Daryaei's written statement, the friend said.

Later, she was filmed strolling through the university in her underwear, before being caught by police and driven away in a car.

What crime did the woman commit?

The friend claimed he saw Daryaei's head being placed between the legs of a female officer when she was being arrested, as if to shame her.

He said she was being “carried, she was unable to breathe, and she was being carried in a position where they were trying to cause her some type of harm.” “She had two children and thought, 'If she doesn't let me go, I'm going to suffocate and my kids are going to be without their mother.

The account says that Daryaei finally bit off the officer's hand, which led to her being let go.

Was she injected with sedative?

The friend said the police at the station tried to sedate her or give her some other drug when she objected.

“Of course she began to cry and toss her head around,” he said. “When they put the needle in her, it did break the first time, and the second time they did manage to put the needle in, she passed out.

What happen in the hospital?

Daryaei allegedly "woke up tied hand and foot on a hospital bed without being able to tell where she was.

The friend said she told the doctors that she wanted to see her family, but the doctors didn't respond. They had someone give her a different shot each time they tried to get information from her, and she went to sleep or "lost consciousness".

She was then questioned by him about her reasons for conducting the protest and what she was thinking, he said, and also whether she wanted to run away from Iran and ask for asylum elsewhere.

The video footage received worldwide attention and the police tried to frame the shooting as a mental-health case, according to the friend.

He said the regime was attempting to have her admit that she was sick and that the incident was caused by her “mental illness.”

The friend also claimed that the police had visited the family of Daryaei including her children in the hospital and had threatened them.

She was released only after she was described as having mental health issues, pushing her former husband to say this, he said.

How many days did the woman stay in the hospital?

The report states that Daryaei was hospitalized involuntarily for 18 days.
The friend, after her release, told Iranian authorities that she would be monitored, and that her mobile phone would be monitored. She was also prescribed with the need to take antipsychotic drugs and was allegedly required to cover the cost with her personal insurance.

The friend said authorities kept close watch on her and noticed that she was “walking normally” which suggested that she was not taking the drug, while they had expected her to be “visibly” sedated.

How is the woman now?

She still needs to be given a psychiatric drug, flupentixol, by doctors each month in order to take it, he said.

She was told by her family that it was better to get these injections and be labeled mentally ill than hanged, imprisoned or tortured, the friend said.

Daryaei told him a doctor told her that if she stopped taking the injection, she would be arrested and sent back to a psychiatric hospital and be restrained, he said.

According to the friend, Daryaei, who is a mother of two, is adamant that she is not mentally ill and that psychiatric treatment is a way for authorities to hide an embarrassing event for the regime internationally.

The initial protest was her anger over the way officers treated her over her headscarf, and her wish to have control over her own body, she said.

“It was all the way that they were pulling, and treating her, and it was all because of this scarf,” he said. “She wanted to fight back on her own level as they were fighting her.”

The friend told me that she had said, “This is me, this is my body, this is my life.