Iran’s morality police are accused of leaving a teenager in a coma after beating her for not wearing a headscarf

Activists have accused Iran’s morality police of beating a girl for not wearing a hijab and released a photo allegedly showing her in a coma.

Armita Geravand, 16 years old, He collapsed while boarding the Tehran metro at Shohada station last Sunday, October 1.

Authorities said the minor had fainted and released security camera footage showing her being carried unconscious from the train.

But human rights group Hengaw claimed the minor was subjected to “severe physical abuse” by officers from the vice squad, which is responsible for enforcing the country’s dress code.

The activists said Armita was being treated under tight security at Tehran’s Fajr Hospital all his relatives’ phones had been confiscated.

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On Monday, authorities briefly detained a Sharq journalist who went to the hospital to report on the case.

The complaint

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Sources at Hengaw, which focuses its work on Iran’s Kurdish ethnic minority, said on Tuesday afternoon that Armita lived in Tehran but is originally from the predominantly Kurdish western province of Kermanshah.

“[Ella] “She was physically attacked by authorities at Shohada station… for what they perceived as a violation of the mandatory hijab,” she added. “As a result, she suffered serious injuries and was taken to hospital.”

Two prominent human rights activists also said this to the Reuters news agency There was a confrontation with officers enforcing the strict dress code.

Meanwhile, Amsterdam’s Radio Zamaneh quoted an anonymous source as saying the teenager was “pushed by hijab enforcers” after boarding the train without a headscarf and that she “hit her head against an iron pole.”

On Tuesday evening, Hengaw posted a message on the social network a photo of Armita unconscious in the hospital.

The image, whose authenticity has not been verified by the BBC, shows a short-haired girl lying face up on a bed, with her head in a bandage and connected to what appears to be a breathing tube.

“An accident”

The rights group also said it had received information indicating that Armita’s parents had been interviewed by state news agency IRNA “in the presence of high-ranking security officers who were under significant pressure at the hospital.”

IRNA quoted Armita’s mother as saying they had seen the security camera footage They accepted that what happened on Sunday was an ‘accident’.

“I think my daughter’s blood pressure has dropped. I’m not so sure. I think they said her blood pressure has dropped,” her mother says in a clearly edited video published by IRNA.

Masood Dorosti, general manager of Tehran Metro, also denied that there was “any verbal or physical conflict” between Armita and “metro passengers or staff.”

“Some rumors about a confrontation with metro officers… are untrue and security camera footage refute this claim,” he told IRNA.

The footage reportedly shows Armita with her hair uncovered walking towards a train on the platform with two other girls.

Moments later, one of the girls leaves the train and bows.

She and several other passengers are then seen carrying the unconscious Armita by the arms and legs before laying her on the platform.

Outrage in Iran

Some people on social networks have pointed out that the video published by the authorities showed only the platform and not the interior of the train. Images of the entrance to the station, where the use of hijabs is monitored, have also not been published.

The case of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in custody in September 2022 after being arrested by Tehran vice police for allegedly wearing her hijab “inappropriately,” has also been recalled.

Witnesses said officers beat her, but authorities attributed her death to pre-existing medical conditions.

A security camera video of Amini collapsing in a detention center and a photo of her in the hospital angered many Iranians. Anti-government protests broke out across the country when he died after three days in a coma.

As a result of these protests, hundreds of people have been killed and thousands of others have been arrested in a violent crackdown by security forces.

A year after Mahsa Amini’s death, protests have largely subsided. But sporadic protests continue to take place and many girls and women have stopped covering their hair in public, openly defying the dress code.