10/28/2023 10:51 pm (current 10/28/2023 11:00 pm)
Moral police feared in Iran ©APA/AFP
A 16-year-old Iranian girl has died after an alleged confrontation with the notorious morality police. Student Armita Geravand died on Saturday at a clinic in the capital Tehran, state news agency IRNA reported. The young woman was declared brain dead about a week ago. The case caused widespread outrage far beyond Iran’s borders.
According to reports from human rights activists, the young woman was confronted by moral guards on a subway about a month ago because she was not wearing a headscarf. State media denied violence by the moral police. Geravand fell and hit his head due to low blood pressure, the official statement said. The 16-year-old had been in a coma for weeks.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed her dismay. “The brutality of the regime stole its future”, wrote the green politician on Saturday night on platform X, formerly Twitter. Garawan was still a child, “a whole life was still ahead of him”. Baerbock emphasized: “Iran’s future is its youth. Iran’s future is its women. The regime cannot suppress their desire for freedom.”
Geravand’s fate reminds many Iranians of the case of young Iranian Kurd Jina Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by moral watchdogs in the fall of 2022 because of an allegedly ill-fitting headscarf. Amini fell into a coma and died. Her death sparked the worst protests in decades last year. Since then, many women have manifestly ignored the obligation to wear a headscarf.
The Iranian government responded to numerous veil violations with, among other things, penal reform. The latest version of the new headscarf law, which has not yet come into force, provides severe penalties for violating Islamic rules on dress. This includes fines for multiple violations. In extreme cases, up to 15 years in prison and the equivalent of a fine of more than 5,000 euros may be imposed.
Iran’s notorious moral guardians are repeatedly exposed to harsh criticism, including from those in society. During the wave of protests in the fall of 2022, the units initially disappeared from the street scene before the return of the morality police was announced in mid-July. The headscarf requirement has been law for more than 40 years in the country, which now has a population of almost 90 million. Duty is considered one of the ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic.