Iran arrests lawyer for going to funeral of girl injured in Metro

A video grab of women pulling the teen from a Metro train car. Pic/AP

Iranian authorities arrested a leading human rights lawyer Sunday after she attended the funeral of a teenage girl who died after being injured weeks ago in a mysterious incident on Tehran's Metro. Reports by the semiofficial Fars news agency, which is close to the country's security forces, said Nasrin Sotoudeh was held on charges of violating Iran's mandatory headscarf, or hijab, law.

Many other Iranian news outlets republished the report and said there were multiple arrests at the funeral of Armita Geravanad, who also was not wearing a headscarf at the time she was injured. On Saturday, the 60-year-old Sotoudeh - known for defending activists, opposition politicians and women in Iran prosecuted for removing their headscarves - called the death of Geravand "another state murder".

It's not clear what happened in the few seconds after Geravand entered the train on October 1. A friend told Iranian state television that she hit her head on the station's platform. However, soundless video footage taken from outside of a nearby car is blocked by a bystander. Just seconds later, her limp body is carried off.

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