The latest symbol of ordinary Iranians’ resistance to their authoritarian and fundamentalist government is Armita Geravand, a 16-year-old who was allegedly viciously beaten by Iran’s morality police for refusing to wear a head covering, or hijab, mandated for women and girls in public.
Geravand was confronted on Oct. 1 by the morality police, who enforce the hijab rule and other similar rules. On Sunday, her father said that she was brain dead and there was no hope of recovery. Geravand’s seemingly imminent death comes almost exactly a year after Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman of Kurdish origin, like Geravand, died in custody after being arrested for not wearing a hijab.
After Amini was killed in September 2022, mass protests erupted across the country — and were viciously suppressed by Iran’s leaders, who hew to a fundamentalist brand of Islam. But women have continued to flout hijab rules in a sign that younger Iranians want to live in a free, modern country.
Geravand could become the latest symbol of their resistance. “She stands as a beacon for millions in Iran, defiantly refusing to submit to oppressive mullahs & enforced hijab,” wrote U.S.-based Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad in a social media post.
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