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NEW DELHI: As suspicions continue to grow over how Armita Geravand, a 16-year-old Iranian girl, suffered critical wounds while boarding a Metro train in Tehran, the role of the infamous morality police has come up yet again.
The incident has rekindled the rage which was witnessed a year ago following the death of a Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini.
It has been alleged that Gervand, just like Amini, was subjected to brutality by the morality police as she was travelling without a headscarf, or hijab .
Amini 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.
Here’s what we know so far:
The incident has rekindled the rage which was witnessed a year ago following the death of a Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini.
It has been alleged that Gervand, just like Amini, was subjected to brutality by the morality police as she was travelling without a headscarf, or hijab .
Amini 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.
Here’s what we know so far:
- CCTV footage released by the state media shows Geravand boarding a metro train in Tehran without a headscarf. Just seconds later, Geravand is seemingly pushed out of the train. The footage is not clear as a man is blocking the entrance to the train, reported news agency AP.
- The footage goes on to show authorities taking away Geravand’s limp body.
- A friend of the teenager told Iranian state television that Geravand hit her head on the station’s platform.
- Geravand’s parents have appeared in state media footage claiming that the collapse was due to blood pressure.
- Meanwhile, activists abroad have alleged Geravand may have been pushed or attacked because she was not wearing the hijab. They have also demanded an independent probe into the incident by the UN’s fact-finding mission on Iran.
- An Iranian rights group has also claimed that security forces on Thursday arrested Geravand’s mother, while the girl remains in a
coma . - Iranian authorities have outrightly refuted reports by rights activists that
Armita Geravand was injured in a confrontation with the morality police, responsible for enforcing the country’s Islamic dress code, which requires women to wear a head covering. - Despite all the assertions made by the Iranian government, the authorities have failed to clear the doubts as it has not released footage from inside the train that would reveal what made the teenager collapse.
- Currently, Armita Geravand is admitted to the intensive care unit of a military hospital in Tehran, guarded by security agents.
- According to reports, Armita lives in a working-class neighbourhood of western Tehran and is an art student at a vocational art and design high school. She has a passion for painting and pursued taekwondo training semiprofessionally.
- The incident comes when most women and girls across Iran have continued to defy the mandatory hijab rule by flaunting their hair in public as an act of civil disobedience against the government’s archaic law.
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