Nazanin Update, and it's surprisingly good news, thanks in no small part to international pressure. "Iran clears teenage woman sentenced to death," from AFP:
TEHERAN - An Iranian court has cleared of murder charges a 19-year-old woman who was originally sentenced to death for killing a man she said tried to rape her, the press reported Monday.
Mahabad Fatehi, known as Nazanin, was cleared by a Teheran provincial court of premeditated murder but still ordered to pay blood money of 260 million rials (30,600 dollars) to the victim’s family, the Etemad newspaper reported.
Fatehi, whose case achieved international notoriety when it was taken up by a Canadian beauty queen of Iranian origin, said she stabbed the man in an act of self defence after he tried to rape her and her niece in March 2005.
In January last year, Fatehi was put on trial and sentenced to death by a criminal court, a verdict which was then quashed by the supreme court in an unprecedented move, the report said.
Her case then was referred to the Teheran provincial court, whose five judges cleared her of the charge with the majority of votes on Wednesday, the report said.
‘Two bikers held me and my niece, Somayeh, and asked us a dirty favor. I stabbed Yusof and released myself and Somayeh. But Yusof attacked me again and I stabbed him again,’ Fatehi said.
She maintained she had no other option but self defence, otherwise she and her niece would have been raped by the attackers.
She explained that she and her 15-year-old niece had gone out with two other men when the attackers trapped them in a remote location outside Teheran.
In January 2005, after seven years of legal wrangling, the Iranian judiciary acquitted a woman who killed a senior police officer she said had attempted to rape her on the Gulf island of Kish.
According to the current Iranian law, which is under modification, a boy can be executed from the age of 15, and a girl from the age of nine. However, the execution is in practice normally carried out when the offender is over 18 years old.
The European Union and international human rights groups have been pressuring Iran to stop executing those under age 18, and the UN General Assembly has adopted a non-binding resolution denouncing the practice of executing minors in Iran.
Iran’s ultra-conservative judiciary has responded to critics by saying minors are not executed in the Islamic republic. It has also proposed a law that would prohibit the death penalty or flagellation for those who were minors at the time of the crimes.
Last year at least 154 people were executed in Iran according to an AFP tally based on press and witness reports.
This sounds a lot like Britian's laws concerning using weapons in self defense. Somebody across the Atlantic correct me if I am wrong.
Here's a 30 minute video on how people were galvanized to try to save this young girl and with the young girl's plea to her mother to help her. The video shows some arresting, but shocking images in Iran -- the same as other horrific stories/images are also seen all over the Web. In Iran, girls as young as 9 years old are eligible for the death penalty. For boys it is 15 years old. [Iranian civil code, Article 1210]
Another interesting site about Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi and her ordeal is http://www.helpnazanin.com/
It's at this Web site that you can find a link to another page to help with the "pay 'dieh' retribution (blood money)" if you are so inclined.
Heck, even in Canada women get life for killing men who are trying to kill them. This is not a muslim thing, it's a guy thing.
"Heck, even in Canada women get life for killing men who are trying to kill them. This is not a muslim thing, it's a guy thing."
Yep, but somehow I doubt women in Canada "get life" (or execution) for being raped. Had Nazanin's attackers succeeded in raping her and/or her niece, one or both girls could also have been imprisoned or put to death for losing their "honor." (If the state were not to do that, very likely their families would take matters into their own hands.) I don't live in Canada, but as a woman I'd live there any day than in ANY Islamic state.
Pardon me: Should have read "*rather* than in ANY Islamic state."
A small bit of good news from cukoo land known as the Islamic Republic. Unfortunately, this poor woman will remain in danger as long as she lives there-no doubt some fanatic will be upset with this ruling and try to kill her for defying the will of Satan Khomeini or some other crazy excuse.
“Iran’s ultra-conservative judiciary has responded to critics by saying minors are not executed in the Islamic republic.”
I guess it depend their classification of minor.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/012333.php
Robert said,
"thanks in no small part to international pressure."
Unfortunately it was ALL due to international pressure. The incidents and the possible irreparable harm to the face of Islam did not go unnoticed by the Islamists.
So they let her go and will deal with her another day, so what. For every Nazanin, there are ten others just like her who will never be mentioned after they are killed.
I hope she has a plan to get the hell out of there - fast. I can't see her surviving for long if she doesn't.
And, what happens if she can't come up with the blood money?
"Last year [2006] at least 154 people were executed in Iran..."
Number of executions in the USA in 2006 -- 53.
http://deathpenaltyinformation.blogspot.com/2007/01/usa-year-in-death.html
Population of the USA: approximately 300 million.
Population of Iran: approximately 70 million.
The USA has over 3 times more people (and a much larger land mass, and a far more complex sociological complexion) than Iran.
And yet, Iran had 3 times more executions last year.
Do the math. Undo the myth.
P.S.: And this is not counting the far higher degree of corruption of the Iranian justice system, as well as the immoral bases for their sentencing of death penalty.
OT -
This is vote 'bank' politics at its best
Men in pinstripes may find themselves at the wrong end of minority politics. Soon, a banker writing a loan cheque will have to take into account the borrower's religious practice.
The government has asked the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) to consider earmarking a slice of total loan disbursement for members of minority communities. This will work out to as high as 6% of the total loans given by the banking sector.
" at least 154 people "
....probably much higher....
I am doing an important research and I would need anyone to tell me what is the exact passage in the Koran where the veil is made mandatory.
If anyone wants to help me, I'd would appreciate-
Thanks.
My email address is:
stefania07@hotmail.com
Stefania - no Qur'anic passage says: women must wear a veil.
The closest I know of is in Quran 24:30-31
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/024.qmt.html
024.030
YUSUFALI: Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for greater purity for them: And Allah is well acquainted with all that they do.
PICKTHAL: Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and be modest. That is purer for them. Lo! Allah is aware of what they do.
SHAKIR: Say to the believing men that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts; that is purer for them; surely Allah is Aware of what they do.
024.031
YUSUFALI: And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O ye Believers! turn ye all together towards Allah, that ye may attain Bliss.
PICKTHAL: And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or husbands' fathers, or their sons or their husbands' sons, or their brothers or their brothers' sons or sisters' sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigour, or children who know naught of women's nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And turn unto Allah together, O believers, in order that ye may succeed.
SHAKIR: And say to the believing women that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts and do not display their ornaments except what appears thereof, and let them wear their head-coverings over their bosoms, and not display their ornaments except to their husbands or their fathers, or the fathers of their husbands, or their sons, or the sons of their husbands, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or those whom their right hands possess, or the male servants not having need (of women), or the children who have not attained knowledge of what is hidden of women; and let them not strike their feet so that what they hide of their ornaments may be known; and turn to Allah all of you, O believers! so that you may be successful
but Allah gives a 'get out of jail free' card to ugly old women who men wouldn't find attractive:
024.060
YUSUFALI: Such elderly women as are past the prospect of marriage,- there is no blame on them if they lay aside their (outer) garments, provided they make not a wanton display of their beauty: but it is best for them to be modest: and Allah is One Who sees and knows all things.
PICKTHAL: As for women past child-bearing, who have no hope of marriage, it is no sin for them if they discard their (outer) clothing in such a way as not to show adornment. But to refrain is better for them. Allah is Hearer, Knower.
SHAKIR: And (as for) women advanced in years who do not hope for a marriage, it is no sin for them if they put off their clothes without displaying their ornaments; and if they restrain themselves it is better for them; and Allah is Hearing, Knowing.
A_Plague,
The Hilali-Khan translation of the Qur'an might reveal more nuances of the Arabic than the translations you provided (Hilali and Khan supposedly integrated the tafsirs of three most eminent Muslim scholars, Ibn Kathir, Tabari, and Qurtubi). One key passage on which all three of your translations agree smelled fishy to me:
"...that they should draw their veils over their bosoms..."
So I went to Hilali-Khan, and lo and behold:
"...and to draw their veils all over Juyubihinna (i.e. their bodies, faces, necks and bosoms, etc.)..."
That word juyubihinna is in the original Arabic, and I suspect the Hilali-Khan translation, in massaging their translation with the extremely authoritative and mainstream commentaries of Ibn Kathir, Tabari, and Qurtubi, and therefore expanding beyond the limiting English word "bosom", might be more accurate.