Iran: Teen Armita Geravand 'brain dead' after hijab incident

Iranian teenager Armita Geravand, who was allegedly attacked by the country's morality police for not wearing the mandatory headscarf earlier this month, was reported "brain dead" on Sunday, 22 October.

The 16-year-old had been in a coma since at least 4 October.

"Follow-ups on the latest health condition of Armita Geravand indicate that her health condition as brain dead seems certain despite the efforts of the medical staff," the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran News Network said.

What happened to Armita Geravand?

According the Norway-based rights group Hengaw, Geravand was attacked by the country's morality police while she was riding on the Tehran subway without a headscarf.

She suffered severe brain injuries and was hospitalized afterwards.

Authorities had claimed Geravand fainted due to low blood pressure.

The fragmented video of the teenage girl being dragged unconscious out of the subway car has been published by government media. But no video recording of the encounter itself was released.

Still, the head of the Tehran Metro meanwhile pointed to security camera footage to claim that Geravand was not attacked by passengers or staff.

The teenager, who is Kurdish, is originally from the western city of Kermanshah but lived in the capital.

The incident occurred roughly one year after Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran's morality police after she was approached for not wearing a headscarf in public. Her death sparked unprecedented women's rights protests in Iran.