Armita Geravand was laid to rest Sunday morning, October 29, 2023, in the midst of stringent security measures in Tehran’s sprawling Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery with the presence of family members and a large crowd.
According to one of Armita’s relatives, her family had been “pressured by security forces” to agree to bury her in Tehran. Another relative said, “Although we reside in Tehran, we do not bury our deceased in Tehran.”
The number of plainclothes agents and State Security forces stationed in section 99 of Behesht-e Zahra exceeded the number of participants in the burial ceremony of Armita Geravand. Two relatives and several unidentified women were detained by the security forces.
The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Associations reports that Mohammad Geravand, one of Armita’s acquaintances and a dismissed teacher, is among the detainees.
Published images show that security forces erected metal barriers around the burial site, preventing people from getting close to Armita’s grave.
In videos released from the burial ceremony of Armita Geravand, some of the attendees are chanting, “This perished flower is a gift to the homeland.”
Iranians chant from the rooftops to express their protest to the killing of Armita Geravand
Nighttime protests erupted in various cities across Iran, including Tehran, Karaj, and Shiraz, on the evening of Sunday, October 28, 2023, following the news of Armita Geravand’s death.
People in several areas of Tehran expressed their protest with slogans such as “Armita Geravand, your path continues.”
Protesters in Tehran’s Saadat Abad district chanted, “Death to the child-killing regime” and “I will kill, anyone who killed my sister” from inside homes and residential towers.
Other slogans included “Death to the Islamic Republic,” “Death to Khamenei the oppressor,” “Death to the principle of Velayat-e Faqih,” and “Khamenei the oppressor, we will bury you,” among other nighttime protest slogans in Saadat Abad.
The Ekbatan Township, in western Tehran, a hub of anti-regime protests during the 2022 Iran protests, saw renewed protests. The protesters chanted slogans such as “Death to the child-killing regime” and “Death to the dictator.”
Nighttime slogans were also heard in the Chitgar district in western Tehran and in some areas of Karaj, where protesters chanted slogans like “Death to the child-killing government,” and “Death to the dictator.”
The city of Shiraz, the capital of Fars Province, also witnessed nighttime slogans from some of the protesting people on Sunday evening. The protesters in Shiraz chanted slogans such as “Death to the dictator,” “Death to Khamenei,” and “Armita Geravand, your path continues.”
What happened to Armita Geravand?
Armita Geravand was a talented athlete and a passionate painter. She was brutally assaulted by a Hijab patrol on a Tehran metro subway at around 7 a.m. on Sunday, October 1, 2023, when she and her friends were going to school without covering their hair, according to eyewitnesses cited by The Guardian.
Armita’s head was bleeding when her friends pulled her out of the subway carriage. After 45 minutes, an ambulance took her to the Air Force Fajr Hospital, swarmed by security forces and plainclothes agents.
The clerical regime published a doctored video of the CCTV cameras in the metro, but not the footage from the camera inside the metro wagon.
The parents were not allowed to visit Armita, and her mother who attempted to do so, was temporarily arrested. They were only allowed a glimpse of their daughter in the ICU.
Armita Geravand remained in Fajr Hospital in Tehran under a tight security presence.
Finally, after so many days of foot-dragging and leaking conflicting reports, the Iranian regime announced the death of Armita Geravand, on Saturday, October 28, 2023.
