Armita Geravand’s mother, Shahin Ahmadi, was arrested by Iranian security forces on Wednesday, according to Hengaw, an Iranian Kurdish rights group based in Norway, although there is no confirmation from Iranian authorities. “Her whereabouts are unknown since the afternoon of October 4,” the organization states. The 16-year-old Iranian Kurdish girl, who was allegedly assaulted by morality police for not wearing the hijab in the Tehran subway on Sunday, is still in a coma. Information that the official media of the Islamic Republic denies.
Armita Garawand was hospitalized with a head injury and in a coma after allegedly being pushed by women linked to the morality police inside a subway car, in a case reminiscent of the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, who was also in a coma, in her case, after being beaten in police custody.
Garawand is being treated under tight security at Fajr Air Force Hospital. The young woman appears with her head and neck bandaged in images released by Hengaw. According to the NGO, her relatives are also under surveillance, which prevents them from publishing any information about the matter.
In the images from the security cameras of the Plaza de los Mártires (Shuhada) metro station published by the media sympathetic to the regime, three teenagers are seen with their backpacks, among them, Garawand without the veil, who enter a train at 7 in the morning. Seconds later, the girl’s friends and other passengers carry her limp body onto the platform and remain next to her assisting her until the security guards take her away.
The recording that has been released makes it difficult to determine what really happened. While a friend told Iranian state television that she had hit her head on the platform, the silhouette of the driver obscured the images that should show the place where the blow occurred.
However, Iranian state television did not include any footage from inside the train and offered no explanation why it had not been published. Most Tehran subway cars have multiple surveillance cameras, which security personnel can see. “Refusing to publish the images only increases doubts about the official narrative,” stressed the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported on Monday that the high school student had fainted after a “power drop” in the subway. And the general director of the Tehran metro, Masood Dorosti, denied any “verbal or physical altercation” between the teenager “and the passengers or staff of the metro.” The family also corroborated the official version.
The teenager’s parents gave an interview from the same heavily guarded hospital to Fars, a pro-government news agency. “We have reviewed all the videos and it has been shown to us that it was an accident,” said the father, who had previously confirmed that his daughter suffered a drop in blood pressure, although he acknowledged that she had no previous health problems nor was she taking medication. Her mother, on the other hand, was more doubtful: “I don’t know, they told us that she fainted.”
In the Islamic Republic of Iran, there are known cases of pressure on witnesses or relatives of people who have been arrested or attacked by security forces. In the case of Amini’s death, for example, the family was pressured to address the public and calm the protests that shook the country for months. And days after her death they also detained her brother who was accompanying her when they arrested her.
According to Hengaw, classmates and friends who study with Garavand at the Arwa al Wathqi Art Academy have been threatened by Department of Education staff and security agents who have demanded that they refrain from publishing any information about Armita, including photographs. .
At the moment, Geravand’s injury has already gone around the world and attracted international attention, recalling the repression of the freedoms experienced by women in Iran, while the Government of Iran tries to reduce the significance of the case. “Once again, a young woman in Iran is fighting for her life. Just because she showed her hair in the subway. She is unbearable,” wrote German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. The US deputy special envoy for Iran, Abram Paley, also wrote that he was “shocked and concerned” by the news that Iran’s “morality police had assaulted 16-year-old Armita Geravand.”
Women continue to ignore the hijab law despite increasing repression backed by recent tightening of laws. The Shargh newspaper reported that Tehran’s municipal government has hired about 400 people as “hijab guards” to verbally warn women that they must cover their heads.
