Iranian Armita Garawand buries a migrant boat that capsized off the coast of Sicily after confrontation with the moral police – killing at least five

The young Iranian Armita Garawand was buried after her death. The student was buried on Sunday in the capital Tehran, the news portal “Eslahatnews” reported on Telegram. State media reported her death on Saturday. Garawand fell into a coma about a month ago after an alleged confrontation with Muslim moral guardians.

Videos on social media showed people dressed in black gathering at the central Behesht-e Sahra cemetery in southern Tehran, screaming and crying in grief at the grave. “Dear Armita, goodbye,” a man shouted in a video.

The young woman was reportedly confronted by the vice police in the metro at the beginning of October because she was not wearing a headscarf. State media denied the moral watchdogs’ violence. Garawand fell and hit his head due to low blood pressure, the official statement said. There were different information about her age. State media said Garawand was 16 years old, while some media and activists reported the age as 17.

Garawand’s fate reminds many Iranians of the case of the young Iranian Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by moral watchdogs in the fall of 2022 for an allegedly ill-fitting headscarf. Amini fell into a coma and died. Her death last year sparked the worst protests in decades. Since then, many women have demonstratively ignored the obligation to wear a headscarf.

(yam/sda/dpa)