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Iranian Teen Dies After Alleged Metro Confrontation, Says Media


FILE — In this image from surveillance video aired by Iranian state television, women pull 16-year-old Armita Geravand from a train car on the Tehran Metro in Tehran, Iran, on Oct. 1, 2023.
FILE — In this image from surveillance video aired by Iranian state television, women pull 16-year-old Armita Geravand from a train car on the Tehran Metro in Tehran, Iran, on Oct. 1, 2023.

Armita Geravand, a 16-year-old Iranian girl, has died following an alleged encounter with officers over violating the country's hijab law, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

"Unfortunately, she went into a coma for some time after suffering from brain damage. She died a few minutes ago," IRNA reported.

Geravand had been pronounced brain dead last week after she fell into a coma on October 1.

The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police last September sparked months of anti-government protests that spiralled into the biggest show of opposition to Iranian authorities in years.

Right groups were the first to make Geravand's hospitalization public, posting photos on social media that showed her unconscious and on life support, with a respiratory tube and her head bandaged. Reuters could not verify the pictures.

Iran has denied that Geravand was hurt after a confrontation on October 1 with officers enforcing the mandatory Islamic dress code in the Tehran metro.

Women are required by law to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes in Iran, where the secular and Western-backed Shah was deposed in a revolution in 1979.

Violators face public rebuke, fines or arrest for defying the strict Islamic dress code, more women have been appearing unveiled in public places such as restaurants and shops since Amini's death.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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