The US has expressed its sadness at the passing of Armita Geravand, a young Iranian girl who was left in a coma following a violent act on Tehran’s metro.
Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Advisor, expressed his sadness on X that Armita Geravand had passed away after being assaulted by Iran’s morality police for not covering her head in public. The Iranian government’s use of force against its own citizens is abhorrent and a sign of the regime’s weakness.
After passing out on the Tehran subway in early October, 17-year-old Geravand, from Iran’s Kurdish area, had remained in a coma at Tehran’s Fajr hospital ever since. She had been certified brain-dead a week before, and she passed away last Saturday.
There was some disagreement over what really happened. Geravand, who didn’t have a veil on her head, was shown being taken out of the subway after she lost consciousness in a surveillance video that went viral on social media.
According to the Kurdish rights organization Hengaw, however, she was severely injured in a clash with Iran’s “morality police,” who enforce a stringent dress code that mandates women wear veils.
The authorities alleged that Geravand’s blood pressure dropped suddenly, and she had fallen and hit her head. They claime there was no fight, verbal or physical.
Iranian officials have detained a famous human rights campaigner and lawyer when she attended the burial of the young girl who died following a contested subway incident, her spouse has reported.
Nasrin Sotoudeh was detained in Tehran on Sunday while attending the burial of Garavand, who died after spending over a month in critical care.
Sotoudeh, 60, who was granted the European Parliament’s 2012 Sakharov medal for her human rights efforts, has been jailed multiple times in recent years.
Reports show Geravand died a little over a year after the “morality police” arrested Mahsa Amini, also an Iranian Kurd, for violating the dress code.
The murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police detention ignited global demonstrations against Iran’s Islamic theocracy.
Amini died three days after being imprisoned for breaking Iran’s obligatory headscarf rule on September 16, 2022. That day was a turning point, according to European parliament president Roberta Metsola. It started a historic women-led movement.
