After so many days of foot-dragging and leaking conflicting reports, the criminal Iranian regime finally announced the death of Armita Geravand, Iran’s beloved daughter.
The authorities have reportedly refused to hand over Armita’s body to her family. They insist that the family is not permitted to transport her body to Kermanshah. Instead, security forces will conduct the burial in Tehran to prevent protests similar to those that occurred in the case of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini.
Official announcement of the death of Armita Geravand
At 9:57 a.m., Saturday, October 28, 2023, the clerical regime’s official news agency IRNA announced, “Armita Geravand, a Tehrani student, passed away.”
Other state media published the same dictated cliché report.
The official narrative is that she fainted due to a sudden drop in blood pressure as she was walking into a metro wagon with her friends. Her head hit “the outer edge of the station!!” and she was injured. Her head was hit so strongly that she initially suffered a cardiac arrest but she came back with the help of several citizens who helped resuscitate her.
“Unfortunately, the damage to her brain caused her to go into a coma for some time, and she passed away a few minutes ago.”
“According to the official opinion of doctors,” IRNA added, “Armita Geravand collapsed after a sudden drop in blood pressure, suffered a brain injury, followed by continuous convulsions, decreased cerebral oxygenation, and cerebral edema.”
Background on the death of Armita Geravand
Armita Geravand was brutally assaulted by a Hijab patrol on a Tehran metro subway at around 7 a.m. on Sunday, October 1, 2023, when she and her friends were going to school without covering their hair, according to eyewitnesses cited by The Guardian.
Armita’s head was bleeding when her friends pulled her out of the subway carriage. After 45 minutes, an ambulance took her to the Air Force Fajr Hospital, swarmed by security forces and plainclothes agents.
A Sharq Daily reporter, Maryam Lotfi, who went to the hospital to prepare a report on this incident was detained for several hours.
The clerical regime published a doctored video of the CCTV cameras in the metro, but not the footage from the camera inside the metro wagon.
The parents were not allowed to visit Armita, and her mother who attempted to do so, was temporarily arrested. They were only allowed a glimpse of their daughter in the ICU.
Armita Geravand remained in Fajr Hospital in Tehran under a tight security presence.
The regime even changed her room and all the medical staff caring for her after a picture was leaked out of the hospital, presumably by one of the staff.
Armita enjoyed excellent physical and mental health. She was not only a dedicated athlete who achieved a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo and a member of a martial arts team in Tehran but also a passionate painter, deeply involved in the art.
Mullahs’ criminal practices against women have nothing to do with Islam
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, extended her condolences over the loss of Armita Geravand.
“Once again, the religious fascism ruling Iran has taken an innocent girl from us under the bogus excuse of improper veiling.
“The repressive forces aim to prevent people’s uprising and protest by besieging the hospital and employing oppressive measures. Yet, they are unaware that the people, especially the youth of Iran, as well as my fellow Iranian girls and women, remain determined to overthrow the mullahs’ regime and replace it with democracy and people’s sovereignty.”
She reiterated, “The inhumane and misogynistic policies and practices of the mullahs’ regime against women have nothing to do with Islam and the Quran and are only a means to continue the disgraceful rule of the Velayat-e Faqih regime. No to compulsory religion, no to compulsory government, and no to compulsory hijab.”
Iranians will seek justice for the death of Armita Geravand
As the NCRI Women’s Committee noted a few days ago, speculations are that she was brain-dead from the outset, otherwise, why did the authorities prevent any access to Armita, by her parents, friends, or journalists? Why was the hospital placed under a heavy security blockade?
The clerical regime orchestrated the announcement of the death of Armita Geravand for the weekend when all international news agencies work with limited staff and people are on vacation so that the news is completely overshadowed by the death and destruction the regime has caused in the Middle East.
The Iranian people, however, follow the news curiously. They do not forget that the overthrow of the clerical regime, the root cause of the war and crisis in the Middle East, and regime change in Iran are indispensable not only to freedom and respect for human rights in Iran but also to regional and global peace and security.
The NCRI Women’s Committee renews its call for an independent investigation of this state murder by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.