Posted on 12/22/2004 12:37:01 PM PST by Hillwoman
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)- Iran confirmed Wednesday that a court has sentenced a young woman to death for prostitution but denied reports by rights watchdog Amnesty International that she was mentally disabled. Leyla Mafi, 21, was sentenced to death more than a year ago by a court in Arak, central Iran, for having illegal sex, judiciary official Mohammad Hossein Pourianmehr said. The verdict is now being reviewed by the Supreme Court, as is customary in Iran in capital cases,
Hanging is the usual form of execution in Iran.
Mafi's case had been little noted here but was brought to international attention last week by London-based Amnesty International. The group said the woman, whom it identified only as Leyla M., was 19 with the mental capacity of an 8-year-old.
Pourianmehr, the judiciary official, said Mafi was in full mental and physical health and had confessed.
Pourianmehr said Mafi was 19 when she was arrested, which may account for the age given by Amnesty, which had relied on a report on the case in a small Iranian newspaper.
Mafi started working as a prostitute when she was 14, Pourianmehr said, and has two children now being cared for at a state orphanage.
Amnesty had said the woman's mother forced her into prostitution when she was eight. It said the girl was raped repeatedly and gave birth to a baby when she was nine.
Amnesty said that as a party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, Iran had promised not to execute anyone for crimes committed while they were under 18. Pourianmehr said Mafi was working as a prostitute as an adult.
Last summer a 16-year old girl who was reported to be suffering from a psychological disorder was executed in the northern town of Neka on charges of having an illegal sexual relationship.
Under Iranian law, girls over the age of 9 and boys over 15 face execution if they commit crimes punishable by death, such as murder and rape. Under certain conditions, capital punishment is also imposed for those engaging in an illegal sexual relationship.
Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts to protect the rights of children and improve human rights in Iran, last month tried to hold a rally to protest the executions of those under 18. Ebadi said she was told by the Interior Ministry that there was no need to hold a protest because the judiciary was drafting a bill to limit death verdicts against those under 18.
Ebadi said the judiciary promised two years ago that it would present its bill to parliament but it has not done so yet.
On Tuesday, Iran rejected a U.N. resolution criticizing its human rights record.
AP-ES-12-22-04 1434EST
If a total absence of human rights doesn't qualify a government as evil I cannot think what would.
I'm sure this story will lead the MSM newscasts tonight. /sarcasm
My first thought was that her father and brothers forced her into it, but then I saw: "Amnesty had said the woman's mother forced her into prostitution when she was eight. It said the girl was raped repeatedly and gave birth to a baby when she was nine."
I am no fan of AI, but if this is true, the mother should be drawn and quartered and then executed. Do these people have no mercy or comapassion? I guess their god reserves it for itself; it sure hasn't been extended to the believers.
"It said the girl was raped repeatedly and gave birth to a baby when she was nine."
How very authentically islamic!!
Jesus died for your sins. allah will kill you for them.
I am always amazed that only the women get killed for sex. Who do they have sex with? Goats? Oh no, that's the men, sorry.
(Sigh)If you think about the Islamic/Islamofacist position is that women tempt men. That is why women should be covered from head to foot. Men cannot look at women before prayer or they become unclean. Basically what they are saying is that women are sorceresses (sorceries?) and men are weak, maleable and unable to control themselves. Soooo..... women are punished for the men's weakenesses.
Howzat?
I can understand being born into Islam and having a death sentence over your head if you try to convert to another religion.
Why any woman would WILLINGLY convert TO Islam is beyond me.
That's about it. Like I say: Everyone has the right to think; few use it to think right.
It's so tragic they haven't got the message of peace, love and brotherhood amongst humanity. Even if you are not Christian, these are timeless principles to live and guide our societies by. I fear they will not learn, and will drive this world to destruction. I hope to be there, in the vanguard of the side of Right. And I will smite them, weilding sword and axe, laughing as they fall before the forces of Right.
"Old, yes. Burnt out? Certainly. But I can tell you the memories are still there -clear, intact, indestructable. And they'll be there if I live to be a-hundred-and-ten." Spencer Tracy, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
This old dog still has some bite left...
If you're a "conservative canuck" I guess you'd need the sword and the axe since the government up there has pretty much taken away your firearms, haven't they?
And have we heard from the New York Senator on this matter? Didn't she go to China on one of her junkets on behalf of Womens' Rights?
Let's hear from Hilary!!!!!!!!!
I'm holding my breath.
Somebody please show me just one Dim who is appalled by this...
Actually mine are not registered and well hidden, and it's quite common for a certain Asian segment of Canadian society to attack each other with machette's and axes...Usually related to drugs. Happened quite a bit where I'm from...
Let me get this right. Amnesty International, a liberal group, is behind trying to get this nonsense stopped. Of all the things that liberals and conservatives disagree about, I doubt this is one of them. Let's at least put blame where it belongs, with the Islamic lunnies.
Nah. We just have to register 'em. Firearms just don't satisfy the blood-lust the same way. I prefer this method of execution. Not only is the sword excellent at piercing their cold hearts, this allows plenty of time to look into their eyes and call them motherf&%$ing dogs and tell them how you will have your way with their sisters before they die and go to Hell. They can then see the life seeping out of them into the dust before the axe efficiently relieves them of their heads to roll in the mud and be devoured by jackels.
You left out the part about pouring pig's blood into their wounds and telling them that the 72 virgins would all look like Janet Reno.
Now that they've got your guns registered, they know exactly where to come and pick them up when they're ready, though, don't they? That and the cold makes me glad my grandfather sought his fortune by leaving Novia Scotia and moving further south, but it's good to know there are folks like you still up there.
Thanks. I wish my Grandfather had. There are many of us here, and we're with you.
Why any woman would WILLINGLY convert TO Islam is beyond me."
Like any cult, Islam snatches up the ignorant, "disanfranchized", those without a compass, and the dumb. Most muslims, traditional or converted, have never read their evil book, or have a clue as to it's real agenda.
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