Is Armita Garawand the new Mahsa Amini? The Iranian high school student fell into a coma in controversial circumstances in early October in the Tehran metro. Her state of health is worsening, she is now brain dead, local media announced on Sunday.
“Armita Garawand’s state of health is not encouraging and, despite the efforts of doctors, she appears to be brain dead,” said the Borna agency, affiliated with the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Unclear circumstances
Aged 16 and from a Kurdish region, the teenager has been hospitalized at Fajr hospital in Tehran since October 1 after fainting in the capital’s metro. The circumstances of this malaise are controversial. The authorities claimed that the teenager had been the victim of a “loss of tension” and denied any “verbal or physical altercation” between her “and passengers or metro executives”.
But according to NGOs, the high school student was seriously injured during an “attack” on the part of members of the moral police, responsible for enforcing the obligation for Iranian women to wear the veil in public. This case occurred a little over a year after the death in detention, on September 16, 2022, of Mahsa Amini.