Armita and Jina: Two sides of the same coin

Draped in a white hospital gown her lifeless body lays in a bed covered by greyish sheets in Fajr Hospital. Ever since her violent encounter with the morality police for not abiding by the obligation to wear her compulsory hijab the young Kurdish women has not awaken from her coma. No, this is not the story of Jina Amini, it is the story of 16-year-old Armita Gerawand. Armita was known for her love of drawing and her passion for martial arts having obtained the 3. Dan in Taekwondo.

On the 1st of October Armita was riding the subway in Teheran on her way to her school ‘Orwat-Al Wosgha School, accompanied by two of her friends. Like many other women in the carriage, she chose to undermine clerical authority by wearing her short black hair uncovered. Shortly thereafter she was approached by what Iranians call a kalagh-e siyah (Engl. Black crow). A female member of the military police. They get their nickname from being cladded in black cloth from head to toe and function as one of the most severe enforcements of the mandatory hijab. Accounts differ greatly on what happened in the carriage that day. Official news statements claim that Armita collapsed due to a medical precondition, as was done after Jina was hospitalized on the 13th of October last year. However, alternative statements claim that after disobeying the order to put on her hijab Armita was hit on the head with a baton. Video footage of Armita being dragged out of the carriage by her friends was released by government officials and quickly went viral. It was recorded by a security camera at the subway station Shohada. The video footage of the security camera in the subway carriage itself has not and most likely will not be released to the public. Armita’s body has been attended to in Fajr hospital which lies in the jurisdiction of the military. The young woman has been laying there since the incident with no sign of improvement for more than two weeks.

Stories like Armita’s and Jina’s are a dime a dozen. The legislative obligation of wearing the hijab goes hand in hand with its brutal reinforcement. Women have been fined, arrested, imprisoned, flogged, and raped on the grounds of demonstrating noncompliance or alleged noncompliance with the dress code. Yet, these daily acts of gender-based violence are not deterring Iranian women from living their life as they please as the streets are increasingly being flooded with women who are not wearing a hijab. What might seem like a nonchalant observation to some is detrimental to understanding contemporary Iran. The sheer number of women walking through Iran’s streets saying: “Enough is enough. I get to decide what I want to wear!” is unprecedented. Estimates range from about one third to one fifth of women in Iran’s capital Teheran demonstrating blatant noncompliance. As roughly 12 million of the 80 million people living in Iran are Teheranian residents these figures indicate that large parts of Iran’s society is turning its back on one of the most fundamental pillars established by the clerical rule of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

Armita’s hospitalization is therefore not only a testament to the way the Islamic Republic of Iran treats its citizens but simultaneously is proof that free and independent women are marching towards a future Iran wherein they must no longer submit to anyone be it a single black crow or the entirety of the state apparatus.