Iranian University Summons Female Students Over ‘Dress Code Violations’

Several female students at Yazd University received threatening text messages summoning them over alleged dress code violations.

The messages, sent from the university’s official number, ordered students to report to office 001 in the main building by Wednesday or face disciplinary proceedings in absentia, according to Amir Kabir Newsletter, a Telegram channel covering Iran’s student movement.

Zahra Rahimi, a student activist at Yazd University, criticized the action on the social media platform X, saying threats and violence against female students at the university never end.

“Every day they target students’ psyche with a new method,” Rahimi wrote. “Dress code standards at this university are not only arbitrary and discriminatory, but are enforced more strictly than at many other universities.”

Multiple reports in recent weeks have documented increased pressure on students at universities nationwide.

In a separate case, Yazd University’s disciplinary council suspended a chemistry graduate student for tearing down an “Al-Aqsa Storm” poster that the university’s Basij student organization had installed in support of Hamas’s October 7 attack.

These actions, which include summonses, reprimands, threats and humiliating treatment, have not decreased but instead intensified under President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to the report.

Enforcement of restrictions against students remains a primary tool of control and repression at universities.