Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
A 16 year-old Iranian girl is in a coma in hospital in Tehran after being beaten for not wearing a hijab, according to the Hengaw human rights group. Armita Geravand was boarding a metro train with two friends on Sunday afternoon when they were apprehended by so-called morality police for not wearing headscarves, a Hengaw spokesperson said. Accounts of the incident differ – some say the officers involved were women and Geravand’s parents have said in an interview they accept it was “an accident”. But Hengaw and other rights activists who’ve spoken to Reuters insist there was an altercation with agents over Iran’s strict religious dress code. They also say her parents were interviewed in the presence of high-ranking officials and were coerced into describing their daughter’s injuries as accidental. Protesters have clashed with security forces throughout Iran in regular demonstrations since the death last September of Mahsa Amini, beaten by police for wearing her headscarf incorrectly. But hopes that the demonstrations would bring down the regime have so far proved forlorn.