An official news agency affiliated with the Iranian regime, in a report that was later deleted, announced that Armita Geravand‘s “vital signs” have “changed and deteriorated to some extent” in the past few days.
On October 1st, the 16-year-old schoolgirl was transferred outside a Tehran subway car while unconscious, moments after entering the subway with her friends. A video released by the Tehran Subway company shows that shortly after Armita Geravand entered the subway car, she was transferred outside by several individuals while she was unconscious. However, news circulating on social media suggests that security agents pushed her because she was not wearing a hijab, resulting in her head hitting a metal bar and becoming unconscious. After the incident, she was transferred to Tehran’s Fajr Hospital, and no one is allowed to approach her.
The regime’s Borna news agency, affiliated with the Ministry of Sports and Youth, announced on October 11 in a brief report based on its “journalist’s investigations” and despite “the continuous efforts of the medical staff at Fajr Hospital” that Armita Geravand’s “relatively stable vital signs have changed and deteriorated to some extent in the past few days.”
Borna later removed this news from its various platforms after its publication. The news agency also stated that “the medical team’s efforts to improve” the condition of this 16-year-old student “are still ongoing.”
Despite the removal of this report, some domestic media outlets in Iran, including regime’s Khabar Online news website, have published this report, quoting the Borna news agency.
In the latest reactions of the regime’s officials regarding Armita’s incident in the Tehran subway, Ahmad Vahidi, the regime’s Minister of Interior, said: “This issue is completely clear and obvious. It was an accident that could happen every day anywhere in the country. The enemies of the country do not want the atmosphere of our country to be calm. They tried to create chaos.”
Armita Geravand, a 16-year-old student who was going to school with two of her friends on October 1, collided with an iron pole as a result of being pushed by a Morality Police officer at the “Shohada” metro station and fell into a state of coma. She has been hospitalized in Fajr Hospital, affiliated with the Army Medical Sciences University, under “security” conditions for the past 11 days.
According to reports, Armita Geravand’s friends and family have been threatened not to speak to any media unless authorized by the authorities.
The area surrounding Fajr Hospital is under “strict security,” and plainclothes forces are stationed there.
Michael McCaul, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, expressed concern about the attack on Armita Geravand and, while expressing disgust, considered it similar to an attack that led to the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini a year ago, which led to nationwide protests.
The regime’s morality police arrested her on September 13 for allegedly improperly wearing a hijab, the mandatory head covering imposed upon Iran’s women. Two hours after her arrest, she was taken to a hospital where, three days later, she succumbed to skull injuries that had been sustained during her detention.
In addition, Amnesty International also criticized the “cover-up” by the Iranian regime and called for an independent international investigation into the “serious injury” of Armita Geravand. Raha Bahreini, a researcher for the organization, told Voice of America that there is serious concern that this schoolgirl has also become a victim of forced hijab violence.
Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, in a message posted on X, said, “The Iranian regime continues to prove itself as a ruthless and autocratic state with no regard for its own citizens.”
Iran’s morality police returned to the streets earlier this year to enforce mandatory veiling laws.
Amnesty International wrote in a report dated July 26, 2023: “The Iranian authorities are doubling down on their oppressive methods of policing and severely oppressing Iranian women and girls for defying degrading compulsory veiling laws. Countless women have been suspended or expelled from universities, barred from sitting final exams, and denied access to banking services and public transport. Hundreds of businesses have been forcibly closed for not enforcing compulsory veiling. The intensified crackdown exposes the dubious nature of the Iranian authorities’ previous claims of disbanding the ‘morality’ police, amid contradictory official statements over its return to Iranian streets.”
