Tehran
Suspected confrontation with moral police: Iranian woman dead
In this video still from surveillance video broadcast by Iranian state television, women pull 16-year-old Armita Garawand from a Tehran metro train car. photo
© Uncredited/Iranian state television/AP/dpa
The student’s fate reminds many of the case of Jina Mahsa Amini. Armita Garawand is said to have not been wearing a headscarf when she met the moral police. After weeks in a coma, she has now died.
A 16-year-old Iranian girl has died after an alleged confrontation with the notorious morality police. The student Armita Garawand died on Saturday in a clinic in the capital Tehran, as the state news agency Irna reported. The young woman was declared brain dead around a week ago. The case caused widespread outrage far beyond Iran’s borders.
According to reports from human rights activists, the young woman was confronted by moral guards on a subway about a month ago because she was not wearing a headscarf. State media denied violence by the moral police. Garawand fell and hit his head because of low blood pressure, the official statement said. The 16-year-old had been in a coma for weeks.
Memories are awakened
Garawand’s fate reminds many Iranians of the case of the young Iranian Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by moral watchdogs in the fall of 2022 because of an allegedly ill-fitting headscarf. Amini fell into a coma and died. Her death sparked the worst protests in decades last year. Since then, many women have demonstratively ignored the obligation to wear a headscarf.
Penal reform: Up to 15 years in prison
Iran’s government responded to the numerous headscarf violations with, among other things, penal reform. The latest version of the new headscarf law, which has not yet come into force, provides for harsh penalties for violating Islamic clothing rules. These include fines for multiple violations. In extreme cases, up to 15 years in prison and the equivalent of more than 5,000 euros in fines can be imposed.
Iran’s notorious moral guardians are repeatedly exposed to harsh criticism, including from the middle of society. During the wave of protests in autumn 2022, the units initially disappeared from the street scene before the return of the moral police was announced in mid-July. The headscarf requirement has been the law for more than 40 years in the country, which now has a population of almost 90 million. Duty is considered one of the ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic.