Iranian police deny claim that officers assaulted teen girl over hijab

LONDON — A 16-year-old girl’s alleged attack by the hands of Iran’s “morality police” is renewing grievance of the regime multiple 12 months after the dying of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini sparked national protests.

Armita Geravand, a scholar, was once hospitalized in Tehran after an alleged come across with police officers in a metro station southeast of the town on Sunday, reporters and human rights observers stated.

Geravand is now in a coma, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported Tuesday.

Islamic Republic officers deny there was once an come across between police and Geravand, claiming the girl fainted “due to low blood pressure.”

The news of Geravand’s hospitalization started spreading Sunday when London-based Iranian journalist Farzad Seifikaran wrote on X that the teen and her buddies had been stopped through police for allegedly no longer dressed in headscarves. Seifikaran claims police driven the girl down, she hit her head and fell subconscious.

A remark from Tehran’s metro authority denied a bodily attack had came about. CCTV photos launched through the company, which seemed to be edited, displays a gaggle of teenybopper women stepping onto a teach automotive with out dressed in headscarves. One of the women is then taken out of the auto showing to be subconscious. After a leap minimize within the photos, emergency first responders arrive and take the subconscious girl away.

On Monday, Maryam Lotfi, a journalist with Iranian newspaper Shargh Daily was reportedly arrested through safety guards after she went to the health center the place Geravand is being handled, the newspaper reported. Shargh Daily later reported that Lotfi was freed that evening. There is heavy safety on the health center, the news outlet reported.

The incident comes over a 12 months after the 22-year-old Amini was once arrested through the morality police for allegedly no longer absolutely complying with the necessary hijab regulations. During her detainment, Amini mysteriously fell right into a coma after which died within the health center.

Her tragic dying precipitated bloody national protests which swept over the rustic for months. Tens of hundreds had been arrested and over 500 other folks had been killed within the protests as Iran Human Rights group reported in April. Protests towards the regime additionally erupted in Paris, Istanbul and different towns world wide.

At least seven Iranian males who allegedly participated within the protests were carried out through the regime. Many girls within the nation proceed their civil disobedience through no longer dressed in necessary headscarves in public areas.

Some on social media expressed worry that the 16-year-old may well be every other Mahsa Amini.

“The story they [the regime] has made up for Armita Geravand is completely similar to the story of Mahsa Jina Amini. ‘Her pressure dropped and her head hit somewhere, and she is still in a coma,'” activist Soran Mansournia wrote on his X account quoting the regime’s defense. Mansournia’s brother was once killed 4 years in the past after taking part in every other spherical of national protests on the time.

The Islamic Republic News Agency published an interview on Tuesday with a pair known through the news company as Geravand’s oldsters.

“As they say, her blood pressure has dropped,” her mom says.

Many observers claim the video is a “forced confession” through the oldsters. No video from throughout the teach automotive or from the entrance the place Geravand enters the teach has been launched but.