2023-10-29 01:50:24
Tehran: 16-year-old Armita Geravand died after being beaten up by the women police in Iran for not wearing hijab. Reports surfaced that Armita was brain dead last week. On October 1st, Armita was beaten by the morality police for violating hijab rules on a train at Shohada metro station in Tehran.
Armita, who was unconscious, was taken out of the train by her friends. However, the Iranian authorities deny the allegation. The police say that Armita fell unconscious due to low blood pressure and during this the back of her head hit the rail of the train. Armita’s family, originally from Kermanshah in Kurdish-majority western Iran, currently lives in the country’s capital, Tehran.
The military hospital in Tehran where Armita was treated was under heavy security. It is alleged that the police threatened Armita’s family members. In September last year, the death of a 22-year-old woman named Mahsa Amini after she was beaten up by the morality police for not wearing hijab led to massive protests in the country.
Mahsa died while being treated for head injuries while in police custody. Later, ‘anti-hijab protests’ started in the country. Over 500 people were killed and over 20,000 arrested during the protests. The ongoing anti-regime protests in Iran may intensify with Armita’s death.
Laws without change
Despite the protests, the Iranian government has taken steps to tighten the country’s mandatory hijab law. Earlier this year, authorities announced that they would use ‘facial recognition technology’ and CCTV cameras to identify women who fail to comply with the requirement to wear headscarves.
In July, patrols by the morality police resumed to punish women who did not cover their heads with hijab in public places. In the context of the protests that followed the death of Mahsa Amini, Sadachara police had stopped patrolling. There were reports that the morality police had been disbanded, but Iran later denied this.
The moral police are the ones who monitor whether people are following religious matters. The police unit, called Gasht-e-Irshad, or ‘Guidance Patrol’, was established in 2005 during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It began patrolling in 2006. Women were jailed if they did not dress properly. In 2021, Ibrahim Raisi became president, and surveillance by the morality police was intensified.
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