Outrage after Iran policeman sexually assaults woman demonstrator, month after Mahsa Amini protests began

A video of Iranian authorities sexually harassing a woman protester has sparked outrage on social media, one month after the ongoing wave of protests began.

In a video verified by BBC Persian, a member of Iran’s riot police was filmed on Wednesday trying to arrest a woman in Tehran’s Argentina Square when he approached her from behind and touched her inappropriately.

Iran has been rocked by protests since 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died on 16 September after being arrested and beaten in Iranian morality police custody for wearing her headscarf 'improperly'.

"Hypocrisy of religious extremists of any hue or colour is the same everywhere! Iranian security force women to cover their heads but have no shame in sexually assaulting a woman! Such bigotry in the 21st century," law professor Ila Sharma tweeted.

"As if being beaten to death over showing a strand of hair in public like #MahsaAmini wasn’t enough, Iranian women now have to worry about the Islamic regime’s terrorist forces SEXUALLY ASSAULTING them in DAYLIGHT!!! ENOUGH!," an activist with the username @Azadi580 wrote.

The incident is being investigated, state news agency IRNA reported Tehran's Police Public Relations office as saying.

The full extent of the demonstrations and the state crackdowns in Iran remains unclear.

However, an Associated Press tally of reports in state-run and state-linked media shows there have been at least 1,900 arrests connected to the protests. Demonstrations have been reported in at least 50 Iranian cities, towns and villages.