TEHRAN-Activists have accused Iran’s morality police of beating a girl for not wearing a hijab and posted a photo purportedly showing her in a coma.
Armita Geravand, 16, collapsed after boarding a Tehran metro train at Shohada station on Sunday.
Officials said she fainted and released CCTV footage in which she is seen being pulled unconscious from the train. Human rights group Hengaw alleged that she was subjected to “a severe physical assault” by morality police officers. It said Armita was being treated at Tehran’s Fajr hospital under tight security, and that the phones of all members of her family had been confiscated. On Monday, authorities briefly detained a female journalist for the Sharq newspaper who went to the hospital to report on the case. Hengaw, which focuses on Iran’s Kurdish ethnic minority, said on Tuesday afternoon that Armita lived in Tehran but was originally from the predominantly Kurdish western province of Kermanshah. “She was physically attacked by authorities at Shohada station for what they perceived as non-compliance with the compulsory ‘hijab’,” it added. “As a result, she sustained severe injuries and was transported to the hospital.” Two prominent rights activists also told Reuters news agency that there was a confrontation with agents enforcing the strict dress code.