Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi, then 17-years-old, and her niece had been spending some time in a park west of Tehran with their boyfriends, when three men started harassing them.
The girls’ boyfriends fled from the scene (cowards that they are), leaving them helpless behind. The men pushed Nazanin and her niece down on the ground and tried to rape them, and to protect herself, she took out a knife from her pocket and 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, which eventually killed him. According to the newspaper, 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, on January 3, 2006, sentenced Nazanin to death by hanging. Nazanin’s case will be reviewed by the Supreme Court this week. If the death sentence is upheld, she may be executed very shortly after.
If Nazanin had let the men rape her she could, in the worst case, have been arrested for extra-martial sex, which carries a maximum penalty of 100 lashes.
Ahhh, the wonder of Shari’a law in Iran. When the law considers a woman little more than a breeding device, what can you expect?
Most of the countries who in the last century have executed prisoners by hanging, used the long drop method, which, if applied correctly, break the neck of the condemned and result in instant loss of consciousness. Iran, on the other hand, use the suspension method, where the condemned is hoisted up via a winch turned by two executioners or guards, or made to stand on a simple crate which will be kicked from under him/her. Unlike the drop method, the prisoner suffers for several minutes before he/she die from asphyxiation.
The only reason for using suspension instead of long drop is to prolong the suffering of the condemned. Also, executions in Iran are often carried out in public, with the body left hanging for several hours.
This case has received little attention from the rest of the world, and one has to wonder why. We would not accept this if it happened in USA or Europe, so why should we accept it from Iran? Don’t Iranians claim to be better than barbarians?
Where are the multitude of women’s groups all over the world? Why are they silent? Where is Oprah or Dr. Phil? Where is Hillary Clinton?
Remember all the attention the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams, the guy that actually murdered people, received all over the world. Does not Nazanin deserve 100 times that attention?
Visit the website Save Nazanin and sign your support of Nazanin. Call your elected representative, local newspaper, favorite columnist, or Hollywood celebrity. Get the word out. Force the entire world to look and see what is being done in Iran under the cover of “religious law”.
Do something.
Nazanin, Fatehi, Tehran, rape, Shari’a
