US ‘deeply saddened’ by death of Iranian teenager after alleged hijab encounter

The United States has spoken of its deep sadness over the death of a young Iranian girl, Armita Geravand, who had been in a coma after a controversial incident on Tehran’s metro.

“I am deeply saddened to learn that Armita Geravand has died after being beaten by Iran’s morality police for not wearing a hijab in public,” US National Security advisor, Jake Sullivan, said on X. “Iran’s state-sponsored violence against its own people is appalling and underscores the fragility of the regime.”

Geravand, a 17-year-old from Iran’s Kurdish region, had been in a coma in Tehran’s Fajr hospital since 1 October after losing consciousness on the city’s metro. She was declared brain dead a week ago and died on Saturday.

The circumstances surrounding the incident were disputed. A surveillance video widely circulated on social media showed Geravand, who was not wearing a veil, being carried from the metro after losing consciousness.

But Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw said she had been critically wounded in a confrontation with members of Iran’s “morality police”, which enforces a strict dress code requiring women to wear veils in public.

The authorities, however, said Geravand had fallen and injured her head after suffering a sudden drop in blood pressure. They denied that any “physical or verbal altercations” had taken place.

Geravand’s death came just over a year after the death of Mahsa Amini, another young Iranian Kurd, following her arrest by the “morality police” for allegedly breaching the dress code.

That incident sparked mass protests across the Islamic republic.

Photograph: Iranian state television/AP Surveillance video footage, aired by Iranian state television, of Armita Geravand being pulled from a train on the Tehran metro on 1 October.