An Iranian rights group said that security forces yesterday arrested the mother of a teenage girl who was in a coma in hospital following a confrontation with agents in the Tehran metro for not wearing the hijab.
Iran’s judiciary denied the report by the Iranian-Kurdish rights group Hengaw on the X social media platform.
Iranian authorities also deny reports by rights activists that the 16-year-old girl, Armita Geravand, was injured on Sunday in a confrontation with officers enforcing the country’s Islamic dress code, which requires women to wear a head covering.
Hengaw said that security forces arrested Geravand’s mother Shahin Ahmadi yesterday near the hospital where her daughter was taken after the incident.
State news agency IRNA reported that the judiciary denied any arrest having taken place. It said that unidentified enemies were spreading rumours about Geravand’s “loss of consciousness” for their own gain, without elaborating.
Rights groups fear that Geravand might face the same fate as Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman whose death in a coma in September 2022 in the custody of morality police sparked weeks of nationwide anti-government protests in Iran’s most serious unrest for years. The protests led to a deadly crackdown by authorities.
A new hijab law has taken effect in Iran which imposes new punishments on women who do not wear it in public and President Ebrahim Raisi has taken a tough line.
UN-appointed rights officials last month expressed their concern over the law.
Two prominent rights activists told Reuters on Wednesday that Geravand fell into a coma following what they said was a confrontation with agents in the Tehran metro for violating the hijab law.
The Tehran Metro Operating Company told IRNA that CCTV footage showed no sign of verbal or physical conflict between passengers or company employees.
The hospitalisation of Geravand has already ignited anger on social media among Iranians who demand full video footage of what happened, including from inside a metro car.
“We have YET another beautiful girl in a coma all for the crime of bad hijab ... her name is Armita Geravand. She is only 16,” human rights lawyer Gissou Nia, who serves as board chair of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, wrote on X.
Inconclusive CCTV footage shared by IRNA has showed Geravand without a hijab accompanied by two female friends walking towards a train from a metro platform. Upon entering the cabin, one of girls is seen immediately backing off and reaching for the ground, before another girl is dragged unconscious from the cabin by passengers.
The incident has drawn condemnation from Western governments.
US deputy special envoy for Iran Abram Paley wrote on X that Washington was following news of Geravand’s condition closely.
“Shocked and concerned about reports that Iran’s so-called morality police have assaulted 16-year-old Armita Geravand,” Paley said.
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