The Iranian human rights group Hengaw announced this Saturday the death of Armita Garawand, the 16-year-old girl who fell into a coma earlier this month, after allegedly being attacked by the country’s moral police, who wanted to detain her for not wearing a veil. The minor had been brain dead for several days in a hospital in Tehran, guarded by a strong police deployment that prevented the visits of family, friends and journalists. The Iranian authorities have tried to reduce the media focus on the case, due to its parallels with the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, the young Iranian Kurdish woman who died in police custody after being arrested for not wearing the Islamic veil correctly.
Amini’s death just over a year ago sparked mass protests across the country, demanding more rights for women and an end to the ayatollah regime. “Armita Garawand, a student in Tehran, died an hour ago, after intensive medical treatment and after 28 days in intensive care,” Hengaw announced in a statement. “The authorities are preventing the delivery of Armita Garawand’s body to her family,” the note denounces.
Garawand’s arrest is full of controversy, as various versions circulate about what caused the brain contusion that led to her coma. Authorities insist that the minor fainted due to “a pressure drop” in the Tehran subway and hit her head when she fell unconscious. They even published images from subway security cameras, where several police officers can be seen removing a fainted Garawand from the car.
“He suffered a fall that caused brain damage, followed by seizures, a decrease in oxygen in the brain after a sudden drop in blood pressure,” Iranian news agency Tasnim reported. However, the young woman’s close circle and rights groups claim that the young woman was left in a coma due to a police attack during an arrest attempt. The minor had no health problems before admission and she was very athletic, according to what her friends told opposition media. Furthermore, the authorities never published the complete video from the security cameras, only the young woman’s entrance to the subway stop and her exit in the arms of the police. A photograph leaked to the media shows Garawand admitted to the hospital, with a severe bruise on her head and her arms full of bandages. During her stay at the health center, several friends in her closest circle and her relatives received pressure from the Iranian authorities to change her version of what happened, according to human rights groups.
His mother, Shahin Ahmadi, was held in police custody for a day and was forced to sign a document, the content of which has not been revealed to the media. The authorities have at all times prevented her family from visiting the hospital. Given the opacity of the chaos, the rights group Hengaw asked that an analysis by Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross be allowed to determine the state of health of the young woman and what caused her coma. His request was denied. A journalist was also detained when she tried to enter the hospital to report on the case.
The news coincides with the sentencing to seven years in prison “for cooperating with a government hostile to Iran” of Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, the two journalists who revealed the police aggression against Mahsa Jina Amini. Her death put the spotlight on institutional violence against women who do not comply with the dress code, which forces them to cover their hair in public spaces. Amini’s death sparked massive protests across the country. The regime responded to the street proclamations with great brutality. Human rights groups have counted at least 500 deaths in protests at the hands of authorities and thousands of people have been injured. At least 20,000 Iranians have been arrested and harassment, torture and rape in prison have been reported. Added to this is the tightening of the veil law, which now punishes women who violate the dress code with up to ten years in prison.