An Iranian teenager is in critical condition after a confrontation with authorities in the Tehran subway over a violation of the hijab lawaccording to Reuters

Armita Geravand’s case is highly sensitive, raising concerns that the 16-year-old could end up like Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman whose comatose death last year while in moral police custody sparked months of nationwide protests.

While authorities have denied activist groups’ claims that Geravand fell into a coma on Sunday after being attacked by security forces enforcing the Islamic dress code, the Iranian-Kurdish rights organization Hengaw published a photo of her unconscious in a Tehran hospital where she was taken after the incident.

There was no immediate response from Iran’s interior ministry to a request for comment on the incident.

“We are closely monitoring her case. She is in a coma in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital and her condition is critical,” said an activist.

A second activist said security forces had banned Geravand’s parents from posting her photo on social media or speaking to human rights groups.

Footage released to IRNA showed Geravand without compulsory hijab accompanied by two female friends walking towards the train from the subway platform. Once inside the cabin, one of the girls is seen immediately backing up and grabbing the ground, before another girl is dragged unconscious from the cabin by the passengers.

An Iranian journalist was arrested on Monday when she went to the hospital to inquire about Geravand’s condition, Iranian media reported.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on social media platform X said: “Once again a young woman in #Iran is fighting for her life. Just because she showed her hair on the subway. It’s unbearable. The parents of #ArmitaGarawand they don’t have to be in front of the cameras, but they have the right to be at their daughter’s bedside.”