Ahoo Daryaei has shown breathtaking courage and we should all pray for her. (Image: UGC/AFP via Getty Images)
Sometimes an individual, solitary act of courage leaves you virtually speechless. My jaw hit the carpet when I read what a female student at the University of Tehran did this week.
Ahoo Daryaei, a 30-year-old student of French literature, was violently attacked at Azan University’s science and research center. Not by a robber or sexual predator. By Iranian state security agents. Why? You can probably guess: this is Iran.
That’s right. She was not wearing a hijab (headscarf). Patrolling heavyweights, believed to be from the Basij paramilitaries, the Iranian government’s criminal religious morality police, entered and tried to drag her to their on-site office.
Ahoo was having none of it. She fought back, and they tore and tore at her clothes. During the struggle, her hoodie was removed and she managed to break free. And do you know what she did next? She made the only protest she could think of. She defiantly removed the rest of her clothes, all the way down to her underwear. She then walked across campus in her bra and panties. This, in a city and a country where a woman who merely leaves her head uncovered can be arrested, beaten and worse.
Two years ago, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being arrested for not wearing a hijab. Iranian authorities claimed she had suffered a heart attack. Eyewitnesses – women arrested with Mahsa – unequivocally state that she was beaten to death in custody.
So Ahoo would have known she was risking her life. She evaded the ‘escort patrol’ for several minutes, until reinforcements inevitably arrived – at least ten more guards. What followed was filmed on other students’ smartphones.
“Oh my God, how many of them attack just one person?” you hear an audience member say. The footage shows Ahoo being forcibly bundled into a car and driven away. She has not been seen since. A witness said that when the guards tore her clothes, “she got very angry and started taking off the rest of her things. She shouted at them angrily and took off her pants… later, plainclothes officers ambushed her and forced her into a car.”
Student media sites say the woman suffered serious injuries during her arrest, including a severe blow to the head after being struck by a vehicle. This has gone viral in Iran under the hashtag ‘Girl of Science and Research’.
“If courage had a face,” one user posted under a photo of Ahoo sitting defiantly on a wall. “That brave girl is my leader,” wrote another.
With utmost predictability, officials claim that Ahoo “suffers from mental disorders and mental problems.”
Yes, right. They would say that, wouldn’t they? Just like poor Mahsa “died of a heart attack”.
God help this last courageous, defiant victim of Iran’s murderous misogynists.
Say a prayer for her, please.
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Absolutely fascinating research published this week that proves almost irrefutably that crows have extraordinary memories of human faces, as well as the ability to hold grudges for years. I’ve suspected this for a long time.
We have a large community of carrion crows – the most common species in Britain – living in the trees on the heath opposite our house. About five years ago I saw a group of about ten people standing in the middle of the road, furiously pecking at something.
It was a squirrel, half dead after apparently being hit by a car. The crows enthusiastically tried to finish it. Instinctively I ran outside, waving my arms and shouting, and the birds fluttered back into the trees. The squirrel dragged itself to safety under a pile of brush and disappeared.
The crows, frightened by their prey, were clearly furious with me. They cawed and fluttered around above my head. Like I said, this was half a decade ago.
To this day, when I leave the house, the crows call me names. Never anyone else. Only me. They remember. They are still angry. Incredible.
The King and Queen of Spain were a class act in Valencia (Image: MANAURE QUINTERO/AFP via Getty Images)
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Praise to the King and Queen of Spain for going where angels feared to tread in flood-ravaged Valencia. Minor public figures – that is, the regional politicians and officials who clearly failed to warn in time that the deadly deluge was coming – were virtually nowhere to be seen in the catastrophic aftermath.
But Felipe and his wife Letizia, above, put on their tin hats, metaphorically speaking, and trudged through the mud to talk to the survivors. The couple was quite pelted with mud, stones and rubbish, a touchstone for all that anger and sadness.
Letizia let the mud dry from her cheek unwiped and afterwards Felipe said he “completely understood” the crowd’s reaction. A courteous, courageous couple.
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Hmm. There’s something strange going on with the public votes for Strictly couples. Last weekend BBC sports presenter Sam Quek and Gladiator Montell Douglas were in the dance-off.
Both were promising competitors (Sam got the prize and Montell lived to dance another day), and also extremely likable.
But I’m honestly surprised that anyone would like something like this Wynne Evansrecently caught on camera slyly groping partner Katya’s stomach, has lost no more public support and found himself fighting to stay in the competition. The judges would probably save him – he’s a great dancer – but still. Foreign.
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