Armita Geravand, an Iranian teenager, has been confirmed dead following an alleged assault by the morality police.
The state-run IRNA news agency in Iran reported on Geravand’s death but failed to acknowledge the broader unrest surrounding the headscarf law.
The circumstances surrounding Geravand’s entry onto a train on October 1st are still unclear. According to a friend who spoke to Iranian state television, Geravand may have hit her head on the platform of the station.
However, the footage aired by the broadcaster, which was captured from outside the train, is obstructed by a bystander. Within moments, Geravand’s lifeless body is seen being carried away. Interestingly, the report by Iranian state TV did not include any footage from inside the train itself, nor did it provide any explanation for the absence of such footage.
It is worth noting that most train cars on the Tehran Metro are equipped with multiple CCTV cameras, which can be accessed by security personnel. In media coverage, Geravand’s parents appeared and mentioned the possibility of their daughter’s injury being caused by a blood pressure issue, a fall, or a combination of both.
Activists overseas have raised concerns that Geravand may have been forcibly assaulted or coerced due to her decision not to wear the hijab.
They have also called for an impartial inquiry by the United Nations’ fact-finding mission on Iran, highlighting the regime’s tendency to exert pressure on victims’ families and the history of state TV broadcasting coerced confessions.
The Associated Press has been unable to verify the precise circumstances surrounding Geravand’s injuries. The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, which monitors human rights violations in Iran’s western Kurdish region and previously released a photograph of Geravand in a comatose state, reiterated its plea on Saturday for an independent international investigation, citing “the Islamic Republic’s pattern of 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.
Geravand suffered her injury at the Meydan-E Shohada, or Martyrs’ Square, Metro station in southern Tehran. Rumors about how she suffered the injury quickly circulated, something not mentioned by the IRNA report on her death Saturday.
“Unfortunately, the brain damage to the victim caused her to spend some time in a coma and she died a few minutes ago,” the IRNA report read. “According to the official theory of Armita Geravand’s doctors, after a sudden drop in blood pressure, she suffered a fall, a brain injury, followed by continuous convulsions, decreased cerebral oxygenation and a cerebral edema.”
