A 16-year-old Iranian girl has died after an alleged encounter with officers over violating the country’s hijab law, state media and activists have said.
Iran has denied that Armita Geravand was hurt after a confrontation on 1 October with officers enforcing the mandatory Islamic dress code in the Tehran metro. She had been pronounced brain dead last week after falling into a coma on 1 October.
Human rights groups were the first to make Armita’s hospitalisation public, posting photos on social media that showed her unconscious and on life support, with a respiratory tube and her head bandaged. Reuters could not verify the pictures.
On Saturday, the official Islamic Republic news agency (IRNA) reported Armita had died, and a Norwegian rights group, Hengaw, confirmed it had received a report confirming her death. The Guardian has not independently verified the reports.
IRNA reported: “Unfortunately, she went into a coma for some time after suffering from brain damage. She died a few minutes ago.”
Hengaw, which was founded in 2016 to report on human rights violations in the Kurdish areas of Iran, said on its website that Geravand had “tragically passed away”.
The death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in the custody of morality police last September sparked months of anti-government protests that spiralled into the biggest show of opposition to Iranian authorities in years.
Women are legally required to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes in Iran, where the secular and western-backed Shah was deposed in a revolution in 1979.
Violators face public rebuke, fines or arrest, yet increasing numbers of women have been appearing unveiled in public places, such as restaurants and shops, since Amini’s death.
