Iran has condemned Dutch police after a video, widely circulated by international media and on social media platforms, appeared to show officers using force against a heavily pregnant woman at a migration centre in the Netherlands, sparking widespread public outrage.
According to Al Jazeera, the woman said she was assaulted by police at the migration centre where authorities had detained her Palestinian husband. The widely circulated footage appears to show an officer throwing her to the ground, drawing criticism from rights groups and online commentators.
Responding to the incident, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei accused European governments of applying double standards on women’s rights, saying Europe often fuels international outrage over what he described as unverified claims regarding women in Iran while remaining largely silent after footage from the Netherlands sparked controversy online. Referring to the incident, Baqaei said Dutch police officers had forcefully thrown a pregnant woman to the ground and dragged her by her hair.
Baqaei described the incident as “utterly barbaric and unjustifiable,” saying there could be no justification for what he characterized as a violent police assault on a pregnant woman who, according to him, sought to remain alongside her detained Palestinian husband.
He called on Dutch authorities to investigate the incident, alleging that it constituted a serious human rights violation and urging accountability for those involved. Baqaei further argued that the episode reflected what he described as systemic bias and discrimination within the country’s police force.
The incident has reignited debate over police conduct, migrant rights, and the treatment of Palestinians and their families in Europe. The circumstances surrounding the confrontation and the actions of the officers involved have become the subject of intense public scrutiny.
The video also triggered a strong backlash on social media, where many users condemned the conduct of the officers and questioned the treatment of a visibly pregnant woman. Commentators across multiple platforms described the footage as disturbing and called for accountability, while others drew comparisons with European criticism of human rights practices abroad. Several users argued that the incident exposed what they viewed as inconsistencies in the application of human rights standards and the international response to alleged abuses.