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Iranian teen dies a month after losing consciousness in incident
on Tehran's metro with morality police
An Iranian highschool student died on Saturday, nearly a month after falling into a coma
in disputed circumstances on the Tehran metro, media in the Islamic republic said.
Issued on: 28/10/2023 - 09:14
Modified: 28/10/2023 - 13:03
France24, 2 min
In this image from surveillance video aired by Iranian state television, women pull 16-year-old Armita Garawand from a train car on the Tehran Metro in Tehran, Iran on October 1, 2023. AP
By: NEWS WIRES
"Armita Garawand, a student in Tehran, died an hour ago after intensive medical treatment and 28 days of hospitalisation in intensive care," reported the Borna news agency affiliated with the youth ministry.
The circumstances of the incident have been disputed, with metro surveillance footage, which had been broadcast on state television, showing the unveiled teenager being evacuated after fainting in a carriage.
It came just over a year after the death of Mahsa Amini, also a young Iranian Kurd, following her arrest by morality police for allegedly breaching Iran's strict dress code for women, in an incident that sparked mass protests across the Islamic republic.
During the months-long demonstrations, several hundred people were killed, including dozens of security forces, and thousands were arrested.
Seven men were also hanged over their links with the "riots" -- the term Iranian officials use to describe the protests.
Since last year's mass protests, women have been increasingly flouting the dress code, which requires head coverings and modest clothes.
But authorities have also sought to sharpen penalties on those seen to be violating the code, which has been in place since 1983, following Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
Conflicting reports
Garawand's case was first reported on October 3 by Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw, which said she had been critically wounded 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.
That tends to happen when you are knocked unconscious.
But rights groups have said the teen was critically wounded during an alleged assault by female members of Iran's morality police.
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 a cerebral oedema after a sudden drop in blood pressure".
The reformist daily Ham Mihan called on the authorities to "allow independent media to investigate" the incident in order to persuade the public.
MP Ahmad Alirezabeigi on Wednesday described the incident as "important" and called on the legislature to "question the minister of interior" over the events.
On October 8, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the authorities had investigated the incident and that the "situation was completely clear".
"The enemies do not want the country to be calm and they always try to make every incident a controversy," he charged.
Iran has stepped up measures over the past few months against women and businesses who breach the hijab rules.
In September, lawmakers voted in favour of toughening the penalties, which include (very large fines and) jail sentences of up to 10 years for women who violate the dress code.
(AFP)
Pakistan: Abducted and Forcibly Married Christian Girls
Seek Justice in Courts
by Marco Respinti, Bitter Winter, October 24, 2023:
Christian and Hindu girls continue to be abducted, raped, forcibly converted to Islam, and married to Muslim men in Pakistan, a phenomenon “Bitter Winter” has repeatedly denounced. This obnoxious practice would not prosper without some complicity by police and courts of law. Some cases do land in courts. But it is not easy for the victims to win them. Sometimes, the victims are treated as if they were the perpetrators.
Two cases of this month are of special interest. One concerns Mishal Rasheed, who was 15 when she was abducted at gunpoint on October 25, 2022, and taken to an unknown locality, where she was gang-raped by four men. These rapes are unfortunately customary and serve a specific purpose. It is believed that once no longer a virgin, a girl would become unsuitable for marriage, even if she belongs to a religious minority, and her only choice would be to marry one of her captors.
Mishal was then forcibly converted to Islam and married to one of the kidnappers, Abdul Sattar. After six months, Sattar’s brother died and, while everybody in the house was busy with the funeral, Mishal managed to escape and return to her father’s home.
They decided to report the kidnappers and rapists to the police. Not only did the officers refuse to investigate, but they also informed Mishal’s captors of what was going on. The girl and her father had to go into hiding for fear of being killed. Now, they went directly to the Lahore High Court, urging it to open a criminal case against Mishal’s captors. It is up to the High Court to decide, but the case is closely watched by activists for the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan.
The second case concerns Samreen Aftab, who was abducted on August 22 this year by a young man named Muhammad Amir in the area of Faisalabad. She was immediately forcibly converted to Islam and married to Amir. Her father and six family members, knowing that most probably the police would not act, formed a rescue party and took Samreen back home.
Now “they” are the defendants in a court case where Amir qualified their rescue effort as kidnapping. They have been identified by the police and released on pre-arrest bail. Supported by Samreen, they should now defend themselves from the paradoxical charge of being the perpetrators rather than the victims….
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