Iran’s State Media Says Teenage Hijab Victim Is Braindead
Iranian state media said Sunday that Armita Geravand, the teenage girl who fell into a coma earlier this month after an encounter with hijab enforcers, is braindead.
Iranian state media said Sunday that Armita Geravand, the teenage girl who fell into a coma earlier this month after an encounter with hijab enforcers, is braindead.
"Follow-ups on the latest health condition of Geravand indicate that her condition of being brain dead seems certain despite the efforts of the medical staff," state media reported.
There have been concerns by rights advocates that Geravand might face the same fate as Mahsa Amini, whose death in the custody of morality police last year sparked months of nationwide anti-government protests that posed one of the boldest challenges to Iran's clerical rulers. Iran International reported last week that Armita's parents were pressured not to file a lawsuit.
Right groups such as Kurdish-Iranian Hengaw were the first to make Armita Geravand's hospitalization public, publishing photos of the 16-year-old girl on social media that showed her unconscious with a respiratory tube and bandage over her head, visibly on life support.
Iran's theocratic establishment has imposed restrictions on women's dress since a popular revolution deposed the secular and Western-backed Shah in 1979. Women are required by law to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes.
Violators face public rebuke, fines or arrest. Defying the strict Islamic dress code, more women have been appearing unveiled in public places such as malls, restaurants and shops across the country since Amini's death.
(With reporting by Reuters)
