Reports from media in the Islamic Republic confirmed the death of Armita Garawand, a 16-year-old student in Tehran, on Saturday. The Borna news agency, linked to the youth ministry, stated, ‘Armita Garawand passed away after extensive medical care and 28 days in intensive care.’
The teenager, an ethnic Kurd, was hospitalized in Tehran after losing consciousness on the metro. Her case was initially highlighted on October 3 by the Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw, which reported she was critically injured during an incident on the underground train network.”
Authorities say she suffered a sudden drop in blood pressure and denied that any “physical or verbal altercations” had taken place between her and other passengers.
But rights groups have said the teen was critically wounded during an alleged assault by members of Iran’s morality police.
It came just over a year after the death of Mahsa Amini, also a young Iranian Kurd, following her arrest by the morality police for allegedly breaching Iran’s strict dress code for women in an incident that sparked mass protests across the Islamic republic.
On Saturday, Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted doctors as saying that Garawand had “suffered a fall resulting in brain damage followed by continued convulsions, a decline in brain oxygen and cerebral oedema after a sudden drop in blood pressure”.
