A young girl in Iran ended up in a coma after reportedly being attacked by the morality police for not wearing a headscarf. Sadly, state-affiliated media has stated that she is now in a state of brain death.
A 16-year-old girl named Armita Geravand was taken to the hospital after being hurt in an attack at a metro station in Tehran. This incident happened recently, not long after Iran implemented very strict laws that impose even tougher punishments on women who don’t follow the country’s already strict hijab (headscarf) regulations.
“Follow-ups on the latest health condition of Armita Geravand indicate that her condition of being brain dead seems certain despite the efforts of the medical staff,” the state-aligned Tasnim news agency reported Sunday, without providing a source for the information.
Earlier in October, the Norway-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, which focuses on Kurdish rights, said Geravand was “assaulted” by morality police and fell into a coma. Another opposition network, IranWire, said Geravand was admitted to the hospital with “head trauma.”
Hengaw staffer Awyer Shekhi previously told CNN that female morality police officers had approached Geravand near the Shohada metro station and asked her to adjust her hijab.
“This request resulted in an altercation with the morality police officers physically assaulting Geravand. She was pushed, leading to her collapse,” Shekhi said.
Iranian officials have rejected the accusations and claim that Geravand was hospitalized due to low blood pressure, a different reason. Geravand’s friends and family have also supported these denials in interviews with state media, but it’s unclear if they were forced to do so.
Previously, United Nations representatives and human rights organizations have accused Iranian authorities of putting pressure on the families of protesters who were killed to make statements in support of the government’s version of events
Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, died last September after being detained by the regime’s infamous morality police, allegedly for not abiding by the country’s conservative dress code.
