DUBAI, Oct 4 (Portal) – An Iranian teenage girl is in critical condition in hospital, two prominent human rights activists told Portal on Wednesday, after falling into a coma due to a hijab violation following a confrontation with agents in the Tehran metro was law.
Armita Geravand’s case is extremely sensitive and raises concerns that the 16-year-old could suffer the same fate as Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman whose comatose death last year in vice custody sparked months of nationwide protests.
While authorities have dismissed claims from human rights groups that Geravand fell into a coma on Sunday after a confrontation with officials enforcing the Islamic dress code, the Iranian Kurdish human rights group Hengaw published her photo unconscious in a Tehran hospital, where she was taken after the incident was brought.
There was no immediate response from Iran’s Interior Ministry to a request for comment on the incident.
“We are following her case closely. She is in a coma in the intensive care unit of the hospital and her condition is critical… her relatives said that there are a lot of civilian clothes in the hospital,” said one of the activists in Iran.
The second activist said security forces had banned Geravand’s parents from posting her picture on social media or speaking to human rights groups.
Because of the sensitivity of the matter, the activists spoke on condition of anonymity.
CCTV footage shared on IRNA showed Geravand without the obligatory hijab, accompanied by two friends, walking from the subway platform towards the train. Upon entering the cabin, one of the girls is seen immediately backing away and reaching for the floor before another girl is dragged unconscious from the cabin by passengers.
Portal could not immediately verify the authenticity of the footage.
The head of the Tehran metro operating company, Masoud Dorosti, told IRNA that the CCTV footage showed no signs of verbal or physical conflict between passengers or employees of the company.
An Iranian journalist was briefly detained on Monday when she went to the hospital to inquire about Geravand’s situation, Iranian media reported.
“Iranian security institutions said their condition was due to low pressure – a scenario often repeated by such institutions,” Iran-based human rights group Dadban said on social media.
In a video published by state news agency IRNA, her parents said their daughter suffered a drop in blood pressure in the subway cabin, lost her balance and hit her head.
“I think my daughter’s blood pressure has gone down. I am not completely sure. I think they said her blood pressure went down,” her mother said. However, she added that there was no point in provoking controversy.
Human rights groups have taken to social media to call on authorities to release the cabin footage, claiming her parents’ testimony was made under duress.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on the social media platform in front of cameras, “but you have the right to be at your daughter’s bedside.”
(This story has been refiled to remove image)
Reporting by Dubai Newsroom and Parisa Hafezi. Editing by Michael Georgy and William Maclean
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.
Acquire license rights, opens new tab