Iranian high school student Armita Garawand, who fell into a coma under controversial circumstances in the Tehran subway in early October, died on Saturday, local media announced.
“Armita Garawand, a student living in Tehran, died an hour ago after intensive medical treatment and 28 days of hospitalization in the special ward,” said the Borna agency, affiliated with the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The 16-year-old teenager from a Kurdish region had been hospitalized at Tehran’s Fajr Hospital since October 1 after he fainted in the capital’s subway.
The circumstances of this malaise are controversial. Authorities claimed the teen suffered a “breakdown” and denied any “verbal or physical altercation” between her and “passengers or subway executives.”
On Saturday, the local Tasnim agency cited the “official opinion of doctors” that the girl “suffered a fall that resulted in brain damage, followed by persistent convulsions, a decrease in oxygen supply to the brain and cerebral edema, after a sudden drop .” Blood pressure.
But according to NGOs, the high school student was seriously injured in an “attack” by members of the morality police, which is responsible for enforcing Iranian women’s obligation to wear veils in public.
This case came just over a year after the September 16, 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, who was arrested by morality police for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress codes for women. .
This death sparked a large protest movement in the country, which left several hundred dead, including police officers, and resulted in the arrest of thousands of people.