A year after the death of Mahsa Amini, the fate of a 16-year-old girl causes emotion in Iran

The story strangely resembles that of Mahsa Amini, this young Kurd arrested in September 2022 by the moral police for wearing an incorrect veil, and died after three days in a coma. A 16-year-old girl who took the Tehran metro without a veil was said to be in a coma after being arrested by agents of the mullahs, responsible for enforcing the compulsory wearing of the hijab.

The events took place on October 1, according to the Iranian Kurdish rights organization Hengaw, which launched the alert. Armita Garavand, from the town of Kermanshah in predominantly Kurdish western Iran, was allegedly violently attacked at the entrance to Shohaba station by female members of the morality police.

The IranWire news site, based outside Iran, cited a source as saying she was "injured in the head" after being pushed by the agents. Following serious injuries, the young girl was reportedly rushed to Fajr Hospital in a comatose state. “No visits are currently authorized, not even from her family,” added the NGO Hengaw, affirming that the arrest was indeed due to the teenager’s failure to respect the wearing of the veil.

The next day, the authorities in Tehran provided an official version of the case via the official Iranian news agency Irna: the 16-year-old student would have fainted on Sunday after a “drop in tension” in the metro. The general director of the Tehran metro, Masood Dorosti, affirmed that there was no “verbal or physical altercation” between the teenager “and passengers or metro executives”.

The same day, a journalist from the reformist daily Shargh, Maryam Lotfi, wanted to go to the hospital, but was briefly detained there before having to turn back. According to Prague-based Persian media outlet Radiofarda, the hospital is under high protection, especially the intensive care unit. According to the media, “even hospital staff are not authorized to access this floor.” “No visits are currently authorized for the victim, not even from his family,” warned the NGO Hengaw, referring to “the massive presence of security forces” on the scene.

On social networks, the affair caused a stir. Unauthenticated images and videos claim to show the teenager, with friends and apparently without a veil, pushed into the metro by police officers. Others show her tubed and on a drip on a hospital bed. In front of the state media cameras, two classmates of the teenager supported the state thesis on a simple discomfort.

Many Internet users draw parallels with the case of Mahsa Amini, who died at the hands of the moral police a little over a year earlier. His death triggered one of the largest waves of protests the country had ever seen. Protests in major cities lasted several months, eventually stifled by a crackdown that cost the lives of more than 550 demonstrators, according to Iran Human Rights (IHR), and led to the arrest of tens of thousands of people. Mahsa Amini's family claims she died from a blow to the head, something authorities have always denied.