Iranian teen dies after ‘assault by morality police’ for not wearing hijab
A teenage girl allegedly attacked by Iran’s morality police for not wearing a headscarf has died, state media has reported.
Armita Geravand, 16, suffered ‘severe injuries’ and spent weeks in a coma after an altercation at Meydan-E Shohada station in the Iranian capital Tehran on October 1.
Activists abroad have alleged she may have been pushed or attacked for not wearing the hijab and demanded an independent investigation by the United Nations’ fact-finding mission on Iran.
What happened in the few seconds after Armita stepped on to the train remain unclear.
Footage played on state television showing the aftermath on the platform is blocked by a bystander before her body is carried off seconds later.
Despite most train cars on the Tehran Metro being fitted with multiple CCTV cameras monitored by security staff, the report carried no footage from inside the carriage.
Armita’s parents appeared in state media footage saying a blood pressure issue, a fall or perhaps both contributed to their daughter’s injury.
The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, which earlier published a photograph of the teenager in a coma, renewed its calls Saturday for an independent international investigation citing ‘the practice of the Islamic Republic in concealing the truth’.
‘During the last 28 days, the Islamic Republic of Iran tried to distort the narrative of the government murder of this teenage girl,’ the group alleged.
Armita’s death comes after the one-year anniversary of that of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini which similarly sparked nationwide protests at the time.
Masha died in a hospital on September 16, 2022, after she was detained by Iranian morality police on allegations of improperly wearing the hijab.
Suspicions that she was beaten during her arrest led to mass protests that represented the largest challenge to Iran’s theocratic government since the revolution.
Since those large-scale protests subsided, many women in Tehran could be seen without the hijab in defiance of the law.
Meanwhile, imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month in recognition of her tireless campaigning for women’s rights and democracy, and against the death penalty.
The Iranian government criticized her awarding of the prize as a political stunt, without acknowledging its own decades-long campaign targeting Mohammadi for her work.
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