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Iran reportedly arrests female university student who stripped to her underwear in protest
Paris — Iranian authorities arrested a female student on Saturday after she staged a solo protest against harassment by stripping down to her underwear outside her university, reports said.
The woman, who has not been identified, had been harassed inside Tehran’s prestigious Islamic Azad University by members of the Basij paramilitary force who ripped her headscarf and clothes, according to reports by several news outlets and social media channels outside Iran. She then took off her clothes in protest and sat outside the university dressed in just her underwear before defiantly walking in the street to the astonishment of passers-by, videos posted on social media showed.
Under Iran‘s mandatory dress code, women must wear a headscarf and loose-fitting clothes in public.
The video, which was first posted by the Iranian student social media channel the Amir Kabir newsletter, was published by numerous Persian-language outlets, including the Hengaw rights group and Iran Wire news website, as well as Amnesty International. It appeared to have been shot by onlookers in a neighboring building. Another video showed her being bundled into a car by men in plain clothes and driven off to an undisclosed location.
The Amir Kabir newsletter alleged she was beaten during the arrest.
“Iran’s authorities must immediately and unconditionally release the university student who was violently arrested after she removed her clothes in protest against abusive enforcement of compulsory veiling by security officials,” Amnesty International said.
The London-based rights group, which has in the past years chronicled allegations of abuse against women in Iranian prisons, added: “Pending her release, authorities must protect her from torture and other ill-treatment and ensure access to family and lawyer.”
It added that “allegations of beatings and sexual violence against her during arrest need independent and impartial investigations.”
Iran’s conservative Fars news agency confirmed the incident in a report, publishing a picture with the student heavily blurred out.
It said the student had worn “inappropriate clothes” in class and “stripped” after being warned by security guards to comply with the dress code.
Citing “witnesses,” it said the security guards spoke “calmly” with the student and denied the reports that their action had been aggressive.
Near-nationwide protests erupted in 2022 following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman who had been arrested for an alleged breach of the dress code. The protests, which saw women break taboos by removing their headscarves and on occasion even burning them, subsided in the face of a crackdown that left 551 protesters dead and thousands arrested.
Many of those swept up in the crackdown claimed harsh treatment in custody, including some who said they were tortured and sexually assaulted. Iranian officials have denied all those allegations, calling them propaganda aimed at damaging the country’s international reputation.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later announced a formal pardon of all those arrested during the protests, though many reported being rearrested or harassed by authorities afterward.
By September last year, in the wake of Amini’s death and the crackdown that followed, CBS News’ Seyed Bathaei said street protests had all but vanished in Iran but the government appeared to still be grappling with the lingering effects of the unrest. Many women, especially in major cities and at universities, continued to shun the Islamic hijab while out on the streets.
A year later, however, the country’s leaders have ushered in a new law, touted as the “Chasity and Hijab Bill,” in a bid to enforce the mandatory dress code.
Punishment for violations of the hijab rule in the bill are said to vary from fines for first-time offenders to lashings and the denial of government services, and even long jail terms for repeat violators.
“We must not leave each other to stand alone,” wrote Katayoun Riahi, an actress who backed the protests, in a post on Instagram expressing support for the student.
Hossein Ronaghi, a prominent Iranian activist who was jailed during the protests, in a post on X hailed the “bravery” of the student and described her action as a “cry from the bottom of the heart against the oppression that has taken the life out of people, especially women.”
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Boeing machinists vote to accept labor contract, ending 7-week strike
Boeing’s 33,000 unionized machinists on Wednesday voted to approve the plane manufacturer’s latest contract offer, ending a seven-week strike that had halted production of most of the company’s passenger planes.
The union said 59% voted to accept the contract. Members have the option of returning to work as soon as Wednesday, but must be back at work by Tuesday, November 12, the union said in a statement.
Union leaders had strongly urged members to ratify the latest proposal, which would boost wages by 38% over the four-year life of the contract, up from a proposed increase of 35% that members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) had rejected last month.
The revised deal also provides a $12,000 cash bonus to hourly workers and increased contributions to retirement savings plans. The enhanced offer doesn’t address a key sticking point in the contentious talks — restoration of pensions — but Boeing would raise its contributions to employee 401K plans.
Average annual pay for machinists, now $75,608, would climb to $119,309 in four years under the current offer, Boeing said.
The vote came after IAM members in September and October rejected lesser offers by the Seattle-based aerospace giant.
“In every negotiation and strike, there is a point where we have extracted everything we can in bargaining and by withholding our labor,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers stated last week in backing Boeing’s revised offer. “We are at that point now and risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future.”
Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su has played an active role in the negotiations, after recently helping to end a days-long walkout that briefly closed East and Gulf Coast ports.
The Boeing strike that began on Sept. 13 marked the latest setback for the manufacturing giant, which has been the focus of multiple federal probes after a door plug blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The incident revived concerns about the safety of the aircraft after two crashed within five months in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
Boeing in July agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.
During the strike, Boeing was unable to produce any new 737 aircraft, which are made at the company’s assembly plants in the Seattle area. One major Boeing jet, the 787 Dreamliner, is manufactured at a nonunion factory in South Carolina.
The company last month reported a third-quarter loss of $6.1 billion.
contributed to this report.
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