Prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been arrested while attending the funeral of teenager Armita Geravand, who died after allegedly being assaulted by morality police on the Tehran metro system for not wearing Iran‘s obligatory headscarf.
Geravand, 16, was hospitalized on October 1, where she fell into a coma and was announced as having died on October 28. The incident has drawn parallels with the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022, after being arrested for not covering her hair properly, which sparked the ongoing Woman Life Freedom demonstrations.
The protests have ebbed after their initial ferocity amid a tough clampdown by Iran’s hardline Islamist authorities, but there are suggestions that Geravand’s death could become a fresh flashpoint.
In a statement denouncing Sotoudeh’s detention, New York-based freedom of expression champion PEN America said the lawyer was arrested for not wearing a hijab at Geravand’s funeral service.
Read more on deadline.com