A teenage girl allegedly beaten into a coma by Iranian morality police for failing to wear a hijab, or headscarf, is now “brain dead”, according to state-aligned media.
Armita Geravand, 16, has been in hospital ever since the apparent attack at a metro station in Tehran earlier this month.
The tragedy, which has been compared to the brutal assault on 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last year with triggered a wave of protests across the country, comes just weeks after Iran approved harsh new penalties on woman flouting the country’s hijab laws.
A statement carried by Tasnim news agency last night said: “Follow-ups on the latest health condition of Armita Geravand indicate that her condition of being brain dead seems certain despite the efforts of the medical staff.”
Tasnim did not offer a source for the claim.
Ms Geravand, who is being treated at Fajr hospital under tight security, was beaten by officers, according to witnesses, although the Iranian authorities claim she suffered an injury as a result of low blood pressure. A widely circulated CCTV image appears to show her being pulled unconscious from the train.
Speaking to CNN after she became ill, a spokesperson for Norway-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, said Ms Geravand had been attacked after being approached by police at Shohada metro station, who told her to adjust her scarf.
They added: “This request resulted in an altercation with the morality police officers physically assaulting Geravand. She was pushed, leading to her collapse.”
Separately, an Iranian court has sentenced two female journalists to up to seven years in prison for collaborating with the US government and other charges, local reports said Sunday.
Both women have been in prison for more than a year following their coverage of Ms Amini’s death in September 2022.
The sentencing can be appealed within 20 days.
The two journalists are Niloufar Hamedi, who broke the news of Amini’s death for wearing her headscarf too loose, and Elaheh Mohammadi, who wrote about Amini’s funeral.
They were sentenced to seven and six years in prison, respectively, the judiciary news website Mizan reported Sunday.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the decision to sentence the two journalists and reiterated its call for their immediate release.
Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said: “The convictions of Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi are a travesty and serve as a stark testament to the erosion of freedom of speech and the desperate attempts of the Iranian government to criminalise journalism.”
The Tehran Revolutionary Court had charged the journalists with collaborating with the hostile American government, colluding against national security and propaganda against the system, according to Mezan.
Hamedi worked for the reformist newspaper Shargh, while Mohammadi worked for Ham-Mihan, also a reformist paper.
They were detained in September 2022.
The office of the US’s special envoy for Iran condemned the sentences on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, saying: “Niloufar and Elaheh should never have been jailed, and we condemn their sentences.”
Since the protests began, at least 529 people have been killed in demonstrations, according to human rights activists in Iran.
More than 19,700 others have been detained by authorities amid a violent crackdown trying to suppress the dissent.
Iran for months has not offered any overall casualty figures, while acknowledging tens of thousands had been detained.
