Armita Geravand, an Iranian high school student who fell into a coma in controversial circumstances in early October in the Tehran (Iran) metro, died on Saturday October 28, according to state media. “Armita Geravand, a student residing in Tehran, died an hour ago after intensive medical treatment and 28 days of hospitalization in the special care unit,” announced the Borna agency, affiliated with the youth ministry and sports.
Aged 16 and from a Kurdish region, the teenager had been hospitalized at Fajr Hospital in Tehran since October 1 after fainting in the capital’s metro. “Unfortunately, she fell into a coma for a while after suffering brain damage. She died a few minutes ago,” the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) also reported.
A suspicious drama
On Saturday, the local Tasnim news agency cited the “official opinion of doctors” that the girl had “suffered a fall leading to brain damage, followed by continuous convulsions, decreased cerebral oxygenation and a cerebral edema, after a sudden drop in blood pressure.”
The circumstances of this malaise are controversial. The authorities claimed that the teenager, who did not wear the veil, had been the victim of a “breakdown” and denied any “verbal or physical altercation” between her “and passengers or metro executives”.
However, according to NGOs, the high school student was seriously injured during an “attack” on the part of members of the moral police, responsible for enforcing the obligation for Iranian women to wear the veil in public. Iranian authorities have denied these claims.
This case came just over a year after the death in custody on September 16, 2022, of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who was arrested by morality police for allegedly violating strict dress rules imposed on women in Iran. This death triggered a vast protest movement in the country which left several hundred dead, including law enforcement officers, and led to the arrest of thousands of people.
