Armita Garavand, the 17-year-old woman fatally injured in an alleged confrontation with Iran’s morality police over a head-scarf violation, was buried amid tight safety in Tehran on October 29.
Unconfirmed studies say a number of individuals, together with two of Garavand’s kinfolk, had been arrested through the ceremony on the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran.
Civil rights activist Reza Khandan advised RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that his spouse, distinguished human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, was overwhelmed and detained on the funeral.
”Various members had been arrested and overwhelmed up. Nasrin was amongst them,” Khandan mentioned by cellphone from Tehran.
WATCH: Scores of mourners attended the burial of Iranian teenager Armita Garavand on October 29 in Tehran. Beginner video obtained by RFE/RL reveals uncooked feelings on show on the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery and at a separate funeral ceremony within the Jaberi mosque. A heavy police presence was noticed at each locations.
He added that various these detained had been launched, though others, together with Sotoudeh, remained in detention. He mentioned he hasn’t been in a position to contact her.
Iran’s semiofficial Fars information company later confirmed that Sotoudeh had been detained, charged with violating the conservative Islamic nation’s head-scarf regulation.
Sotoudeh has beforehand been arrested and jailed after representing opposition activists, together with ladies prosecuted for eradicating their necessary headscarves.
Video clips printed on social media confirmed a big crowds of individuals — each women and men — attending the burial ceremony.
Iran’s state media had reported Garavand’s dying on October 28, almost a month after she fell and went right into a coma within the Tehran subway.
Garavand was reportedly confronted by the morality police within the subway firstly of October for failing to put on a hijab.
The information of Garavand’s dying got here simply over a 12 months after the dying of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by Iran’s morality police for an alleged head-scarf violation sparked nationwide protests and worldwide condemnation.
A relative advised Radio Farda that “safety brokers” had advised the household they’d be given Garavand’s physique beneath the situation that the burial be held in Tehran and never of their native village within the western province of Kermanshah.
”We stay in Tehran, however we do not bury our useless [here]. We hope to obtain Armita’s physique,” the member of the family had mentioned.
Shortly after the subway incident, authorities remoted Garavand relations and tried to forestall journalists from reaching them. Safety measures had been nonetheless being enforced as of October 28, fueling hypothesis that authorities had been nervous about renewed protests within the nation.
Rights teams and journalists say Garavand and two of her buddies had been confronted on October 1 by cops for not sporting the necessary hijab as they tried to enter a Tehran subway station.
One of many buddies has mentioned the officers bodily assaulted Garavand, who later fell unconscious after coming into a subway carriage. Officers have mentioned Garavand suffered a sudden drop in blood stress, fainted, and fell to the ground, hitting her head.
A supply at Fajr Hospital, who spoke to Radio Farda on situation of anonymity resulting from safety causes, mentioned shortly after the incident that Garavand suffered inside bleeding within the mind.
”Sadly, she went right into a coma for a while after affected by mind harm. She died a couple of minutes in the past,” the official authorities information company IRNA mentioned on October 28.
Garavand’s situation triggered considerations within the West and amongst worldwide rights teams after a purported video of the incident circulated on social media. The video reveals Garavand coming into the subway automobile, however it doesn’t present what precisely transpired within the seconds earlier than her physique is proven being carried again out of it.
Amnesty Worldwide has issued a press release saying authorities ought to permit an unbiased worldwide delegation, together with UN specialists, to analyze the circumstances main as much as Garavand’s hospitalization. Tehran has left the request unanswered.
The US on October 29 mentioned it was “deeply saddened” by the dying of Garavand after she was “overwhelmed by Iran’s morality police for not sporting a hijab in public.”
“Iran’s state-sponsored violence towards its personal individuals is appalling and underscores the fragility of the regime,” White Home national-security adviser Jake Sullivan wrote on social media.
Garavand’s case, and strategies of a cover-up by the authorities, has drawn parallels with the occasions main as much as the dying of 22-year-old Amini final 12 months.
Amini’s dying quickly after she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s hijab regulation triggered the best menace to the Islamic republic’s management for the reason that 1979 revolution.
State media has proven Garavand’s dad and mom talking of varied potential causes for his or her daughter’s fall and harm.
It isn’t clear if the statements had been made beneath duress, however the Hengaw human rights group, which first reported the incident, mentioned on October 5 that Garavand’s mom, Shahin Ahmadi, had been detained quickly by Iranian authorities safety forces.
Earlier this month, Amini and the Ladies, Life, Freedom motion in Iran that was triggered by her dying had been awarded this 12 months’s Sakharov Prize, the European Parliament’s prime rights award, the second honor bestowed upon Iranian ladies this month for his or her typically lethal wrestle for human rights after activist Narges Mohammadi gained the Nobel Peace Prize.
With reporting by dpa