A teenage Iranian girl who fell into a coma earlier this month after an alleged confrontation with police officials for allegedly violating the hijab law has suffered brain death, Iranian state media reported On Sunday.
"The latest details about The State of Armita Gervanad's health indicate that brain death is safe for her, with all the efforts of medical staff," the Islamic Republic of Iran news network said.
Armita and her two friends tried to enter a metro station in Tehran in late September, where they were stopped by police officers for not wearing the hijab, whose wearing is mandatory in Iran.
Officers beat Armita, 16, who later fainted after getting onto a train.
She was taken to the Fajr Air Force hospital on the outskirts of Tehran, where she has been in a coma since October 1, according to human rights groups and journalists who claim Armita is the latest victim of Iran's brutally binding law on wearing headscarf.
Iran's official IRNA news agency claims Armita lost consciousness after his blood pressure dropped and crashed his head on the edge of the subway station.
IRNA-released cctv footage, which appears to have been corrected, shows a group of girls without hijabs, or headscarves, being carried into the carriage. Almost immediately, one of the girls backs off and gets out of the car. She pulls another girl out of the car, who appears to be unresponsive.
The entrance of metro stations in Tehran is often guarded by police officers, or company employees, who bar entry to women who do not abide by the Islamic dress code.
Hengaw, a Norway-based group that monitors human rights violations in Iran, has rejected the official version of events. The group said on October 3 that Garavandi was the victim of "a serious physical assault" by members of the notorious morality police and that she was attacked because she "did not adhere to the hijab law."