By Pishtaz | 2023-11-02

The family of Armita Geravand, an Iranian teenager who died after a "hejab-keeper" reportedly pushed her on a metro train in Tehran, has been pressured by the regime to move her memorial service to a different day.

Geravand's body was interred Sunday (October 29) at Tehran's Behest-e Zahra cemetery, where a large crowd, including a number of rights activists, took part in the ceremony amid the heavy presence of the regime's security forces.

Headed to school on October 1 unveiled, 17-year-old Geravand and her two friends boarded a train at Shohada Metro Station, when she was reportedly approached by a female member of the newly established "hejab-keepers."

According to two witnesses, Geravand got into a confrontation with the hejab-keeper on the train, was pushed, fell and lost consciousness, the Guardian reported.

She was carried off the train and revived on the platform by first responders, the details of which were reported by Iran's regime-affiliated media.

The teen, a native of the majority-Kurdish province of Kermanshah who lived with her family in Tehran, remained in a coma and on life support in Tehran's Fajr Hospital until Saturday, when she passed away.

A few days earlier, Iranian media reported her as being brain dead.

Arrests and protests

"Given the participation of the 'Women, Life, Freedom' rioters in the burial ceremony, the presence of security forces was quite normal," hardline Iranian daily Javan wrote of the heavy security presence at Geravand's interment.

Several activists were violently arrested at the teen's gravesite, one of whom was human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has served multiple prison terms for her rights activism and was released on medical grounds in 2021.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) affiliated Fars News covered the burial, repeating the regime's narrative that the teen had fallen and hit her head after a drop in her blood pressure.

None of the pictures Fars News published showed unveiled women, although a number of female participants were bare-headed at the ceremony, and there was no mention of the arrests at the burial site in its coverage.

Sotoudeh's husband, civil activist Reza Khandan, confirmed her arrest in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"In a short call, Nasrin Sotoudeh has confirmed that she was severely beaten while being detained." She was arrested "on charges of unveiling and activity against society's mental security," Khandan's post said.

"Many individuals who were arrested [at Geravand's burial ceremony] were taken to Tehran's Vozara Detention Center and held until at least nighttime on Sunday."

"Voazara Detention Center is the same place where Mahsa Amini was killed by security officers last year," Khandan said.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller condemned "the Iranian authorities' violent assault and unjust detention of several human rights defenders" during the burial in a Tuesday post on X.

The office of US Deputy Special Envoy to Iran Abram Paley also condemned Sotoudeh's arrest and the Iranian regime's violence against women in a Wednesday post on X.

"Iran's leadership should do the right thing: release Nasrin immediately and cease its violence against the women and girls of Iran," it said.

Crowds gathered in protest in a number of Iranian cities after Geravand's burial -- Tehran, Karaj, Sari, Shiraz and Mashhad -- and anti-regime slogans were spray-painted on walls.

In western Tehran, protests continued for two nights following the burial, with participants chanting anti-regime slogans.

Pressure on Geravands

According to a source close to the Geravand family, the regime pressured the family into moving the date for a planned memorial service, the RFE/RL Persian service (Radio Farda) reported.

The teen's parents were preparing to hold a memorial ceremony on Thursday, as the seventh-day remembrance -- an Iranian tradition.

The regime has put immense pressure on the Geravands to move the ceremony from Thursday -- the first day of the Iranian weekend -- to Wednesday, a workday, Radio Farda said.

The family was told "there might be too many people at the ceremony if it were to be held on a Thursday," the source said, adding that the family is deeply upset about this.

"Armita's mother, father and sister are under close watch and extreme pressure by the regime's security forces; they face an inhumane situation as they grieve," the source said.

Message from prison

Narges Mohammadi, who was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize for "her fight against the oppression of women in Iran" -- has smuggled a message for the Nobel Committee out of Evin prison, AFP reported.

"Victory is not easy, but it is certain," the 51-year-old imprisoned rights activist said in the message, published Monday on the official Nobel website.

"The compulsory hejab is a means of control and repression imposed on society and on which the continuation and survival of this authoritarian religious regime depends," the message said.

The rights activist condemned "a regime that has institutionalized deprivation and poverty in society for 45 years," adding that it was "built on lies, deception, cunning and intimidation."

Mohammadi, who has been expressing strong support for the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement, was denied a hospital visit earlier this week as she refused to wear a headscarf.