16-Year-Old In Iran Battling For Life Post Assault From Irani ‘Moral’ Police  

According to rights organizations, a 16-year-old Iranian girl is battling for her life following an alleged attack by Iran ‘moral’ police. The officials hauled her from the Tehran Metro for disobeying the hijab legislation. The episode happened a year after Mahsa Amini’s tragic death, which incited outcry all over the world.

Moral police of Iran

Armita Garawand, the victim, is a resident of Tehran but is originally from the Kurdish-populated western Iranian city of Kermanshah. She is currently in a coma and receiving treatment at the hospital amid tight security. The girl was reportedly seriously hurt during an altercation with female police officers on the Tehran subway, according to the Kurdish-focused rights organization Hengaw.

Iranian authorities turns down allegations

Iranian authorities, however, have denied these claims, claiming that the child “fainted” owing to low blood pressure and that no security forces were involved. An alleged video of the incident depicts the youngster being pushed into the metro by female police officers while accompanied by companions and appearing to be exposed, followed by the removal of an immobilized body.

VIDEO: 16-year-old Armita Garawand was reportedly assaulted by Iran’s morality police. She remains in a coma. Last year, Iranian police killed Masha Amini in a similar incident, sparking nationwide protests. pic.twitter.com/OwC4Tn4FbJ

— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) October 3, 2023

Hengaw claimed that Garawand sustained serious injuries as a result of being physically assaulted and seized by members of Tehran’s so-called morality police on Sunday at the Shohada metro station. It stated that the woman was receiving treatment at Tehran’s Fajr hospital under strict security and that “no visits are currently permitted for the victim, not even from her family.”

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Iranian authorities on high alert

The episode put Iranian authorities on high alert for any escalation of societal unrest. Several months of protests that shook Iran’s clerical leadership last year over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who had been detained for allegedly breaking the strict dress code for women, only dwindled in the face of a crackdown that, in the eyes of activists, resulted in thousands of arrests and hundreds of deaths.

Masood Dorosti, managing director of the Tehran subway system, denied there was “any verbal or physical conflict” between the student and “passengers or metro executives”. “Some rumours about a confrontation with metro agents… are not true and CCTV footage refutes this claim,” Dorosti told state news agency.