Indian actor Elnaaz Norouzi strips in protest against Iran’s morality police

‘Every woman should have the power to decide over her own body!’

Indian actor Elnaaz Norouzi has joined the protest against Iran’s “morality police” by taking her clothes off one at a time in an Instagram video.

On Tuesday (11 October), the Sacred Games star posted a video where she was seen taking off multiple layers of clothes.

The 30-year-old actor, who was born in Iran, started off by taking off her hijab, followed by her burqa, and the rest of her clothes.

“Every woman, anywhere in the world, regardless of where she is from, should have the right to wear whatever she desires and when or wherever she desires to wear it,” she wrote in the caption.

“No man nor any other woman has the right to judge her or ask her to dress otherwise.

“Everyone has different views and beliefs and they have to be respected,” she added. “Democracy means the power to decide.

“Every woman should have the power to decide over her own body!”

Norouzi also clarified that her intention isn’t to promote nudity, but “freedom of choice!”

As per India Times, Norouzi told journalist Siddharth Khanna that once upon a time, she was also captured in capital Tehran by the “morality police” — a unit of the police force dedicated to enforcing Islamic dress code.

“What happened to Mahsa Amini, that morality police captured her on the roads? This happened to me as well in Tehran,” she said. “This happens to women every day. What happened to her could have happened to me as well or can happen to any other woman tomorrow. So we need to change something.”

Describing her experience, the actor revealed that she was taken to a “re-education centre”.

“I didn’t know where it was; I didn’t have the address. They take your phone,” she said. “Mahsa must have resisted, and they must have hit her head so much that she went into a coma and died.”

“They take all of your information; they take your ID. They take pictures of you like you are in prison. They made me write my name and take pictures from all the angles in the clothes that you had on. Then they tell you, ‘if we catch you again with the wrong type of clothing, it won’t be this easy.’”

Amini, who was 22-year-old, was captured by the morality police last month for failing to cover her hair with a hijab. A few days later, she was declared dead.

Her death followed widespread protests and confrontation with the police in which over 130 people lost their lives. Britain on Monday sanctioned senior Iranian security officials and the morality police, saying the force had used threats of detention and violence to control what Iranian women wear and how they behave in public.