Naznin Mahabad Fatehi is an 18-year old Iranian girl sentenced in January to death in January by hanging. Her crime was killing a man who ambushed and tried to rape her.In March 2005, when still 17, Nazanin and her niece were spending time with their boyfriends in a Tehran park when three men started harassing them. The boyfriends fled and the men tried to rape Nazanin and her niece. To protect herself, she stabbed one of the men in the hand.The girls tried to escape, but the men overtook them, and at this point, Nazanin stabbed one of the other men in the chest, who subsequently died.
According to reports she broke down in tears when she told the court: "I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not want to kill that boy. At the heat of the moment I did not know what to do because no one came to our help." Nevertheless, the court sentenced her to death by hanging.
As she was 17 when the incident took place Nazanin would have been tried as a minor in most other nations and would not have been liable to face the death penalty if found guilty. In Iran, however, the minimum age for the death penalty is 15 years for males, and 9 years for females (although there is no record of any girls so young being executed). It is worth noting, that had Nazanin let herself be raped then at worst she could have been arrested for extra-martial sex, which carries a maximum penalty of 100 lashes.
Her case is due to be reviewed imminently by the Iranian Supreme Court. If the sentence is upheld then her sentence is likely to be carried out very soon after.
Nazanin’s case has been taken up by Amnesty International. It has also been taken up by former Miss Canada Nazanin Afshin-Jam whose petition can be accessed here
More information on Nazarin’s case can be read here. This site also describes the hanging method used in Iran (It is not the “long drop” method that was used here in the UK prior to abolition) and details other cases where minors were sentenced to death.
I am grateful to the Bitch PhD blog for drawing this case to may attention.
8 comments:
Is there an answer?
Good question! Sometimes bringing gentle pressure to bear on a state can have the desired effect on issues such as this"
There is a lot to condemn in the West but that should not be an excuse not to condemn what happens elsewhere.
I have nothing but contempt, however, for those in the West that support the likes of the Iranian theocracy nut you know that already!
Gentle pressure? How gentle? Don't you think "gentle" pressure will never work? Iran had been under hard pressure, and you can see the results now. To intervene is a sin, not to intervene is no less a sin.
You were right about the Western support, both for regimes like this one, or the regimes we had. Ignorance and idiocy are by no means a viable excuse for this complicity.
The purpose of this campaign is to save a young woman from the gallows rather than regime change. For this sort of campaign gentle pressure may work - Amnesty International has had a fair amount of success (but not enough of course given the number of political prisoners across the world)
Of course regime change is essential: The people of Iran have had to endure a vile theocracy for far too long but that will not come soon enough for this young woman
"...let herself be raped, then at worst she could have been arrested for extra-martial sex, which carries a maximum penalty of 100 lashes..."
I am not condoning murder.
But Nazanin would have been in a no-win situation: Assuming he had succeeded in raping her and she had contacted HIV, I wonder what the outcome would have been, 100 lashes?
This is a very interesting case.
Denigrating "Western" civilization is a favorite hobby around some of these blogs. Glad to see the ire turned towards the appalling treatment of women in predominate Muslim/Taliban countries. As a mother of four girls, I'm especially thankful to live in a place that holds them in higher regard than as personal property.
Thank you for this post.
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