This is the shocking moment a suspected female morality police officer attacked a screaming teenager and pushed her to the ground.
It was reported that the teenager was accosted by the officer for refusing to cover her hair, violating strict Iranian laws governing what women can wear.
Footage of the incident was captured in what appears to be a busy public park in Iran – reportedly Borujerd – and shared on social media.
The clip begins with a group of people crowded next to a tree and a low brick wall as bystanders look on.
Screams come from a person in the middle of the group, and it is clear that some people are competing against each other.
This is the shocking moment a suspected female morality police officer attacked a screaming teenager and pushed her to the ground
Footage of the incident was captured in what appears to be a busy public park in Iran – reportedly Borujerd – and shared on social media. The teenager was pushed to the ground by the suspected vice officer. Her fate was unclear from the footage
Suddenly, the teenage girl falls back against the wall, while an older woman – wearing an all-black hijab – lands on top of her.
The older women are believed to be an officer of Iran’s moral police, a group that enforces the Islamic State’s strict dress code for women.
The older woman appears to try to control the teen, but the younger one continues to scream and fight back against the attempts.
She appears to successfully kick the older women off of her, who gets up, but then returns to the girl lying on the ground and tries to pick her off the floor.
Some bystanders also get involved, but at the end of the clip it remains unclear who they are trying to help: the older women or the teenager.
According to Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and activist who shared the footage, the person who filmed the video gave her details about the incident.
“The so-called morality police in Iran violently attacked a teenager for not wearing a hijab in the city of Borujerd, Iran,” Alinejad on X wrote alongside the video.
“The citizen who filmed this incident told me that a hijab police officer brutally tried to arrest the teenage girl because she was wearing a T-shirt,” she said. “But because she screamed for help, people gathered and rescued her from the police.”
“Watch the video for yourself and you will understand why we call on all of you to be #UnitedAgainstGenderApartheid.”
According to Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and activist who shared the footage, the person who filmed the video said the teenager was rescued by onlookers.
The clip is the latest in a series showing what appears to be a renewed attempt by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to enforce his regime’s draconian laws.
Tehran announced the “Nour Project” last month, according to the Jerusalem Post, which aims to “deal with anomalies.”
This has resulted in the strong presence of the country’s Guidance Patrol, also known as the moral police – the Islamic police and vice squad – in several cities.
According to Iran’s Mehr News Agency, police have been instructed to focus on “positive behavior” and avoid using “negative behavior.”
However, the Jerusalem Post report suggests that the crackdown was violent.
There have been reports from the country of sexual harassment, assault, widespread arrests, window breaking and the use of tasers.
Iran’s crackdown also comes just a week after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said wearing the hijab was of “utmost importance,” the publication said.
He also accused foreigners in the country of “hiring” women not to wear the hijab.
The crackdown also comes 18 months after the death of Mahsa Amini – a 22-year-old woman who died in custody in September 2022 after being arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic dress code.
Amini’s death sparked months of mass protests across Iran and posed the biggest challenge to Iran’s spiritual leaders in decades.
These images (pictured) emerged last month showing officers rounding up women and bundling them into white vans as part of Tehran’s crackdown on women’s clothing
A suspected vice police officer is seen speaking stern words to a woman on the street before leading her over a van – despite the fact she appears to be wearing a hijab
According to reports, more than 500 people were killed as the regime in Tehran fought back against protesters, who received support from around the world.
In March, a fact-finding mission commissioned by the United Nations said Ms Amini’s death in the custody of Iran’s morality police was “unlawful” and the result of violence, and that women in the country continued to be subject to widespread discrimination.
“Our investigation has determined that her death was unlawful and caused by physical violence in the custody of state authorities,” Sara Hossain, chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
She said the protests that followed were marked by “blatant human rights violations,” including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and ill-treatment, as well as rape and sexual violence.
“These acts were committed in the context of a widespread and systematic attack on women and girls, and other individuals who expressed support for human rights,” Hossain said.
Iran’s crackdown comes just a week after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said wearing the hijab was of “utmost importance,” the publication said.
“Some of these serious human rights violations reached the level of crimes against humanity.”
In response, Kazem Gharib Abadi, secretary general of Iran’s Supreme Council for Human Rights, accused the fact-finding mission of a “glaring lack of independence and impartiality.”
Hossain said that since the protests, women and girls in Iran have faced daily discrimination “affecting virtually all aspects of their private and public lives.”
‘It is difficult to fathom that in the 21st century, women’s access to the most basic services and opportunities, such as schools, universities, hospitals and courts, or to employment opportunities in government or other sectors, should be completely subject to a completely arbitrary requirement to wear the mandatory hijab,” she said.