Atefah Sahaaleh: wrongly described as being 22 years old
Posted on 08/03/2006 9:54:40 PM PDT by Coleus
A television documentary team has pieced together details surrounding the case of a 16-year-old girl, executed two years ago in Iran.
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Atefah Sahaaleh: wrongly described as being 22 years old
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On 15 August, 2004, Atefah Sahaaleh was hanged in a public square in the Iranian city of Neka. Her death sentence was imposed for "crimes against chastity". The state-run newspaper accused her of adultery and described her as 22 years old. But she was not married - and she was just 16.
Sharia Law
In terms of the number of people executed by the state in 2004, Iran is estimated to be second only to China. In the year of Atefah's death, at least 159 people were executed in accordance with the Islamic law of the country, based on the Sharia code. Since the revolution, Sharia law has been Iran's highest legal authority. Alongside murder and drug smuggling, sex outside marriage is also a capital crime. As a signatory of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, Iran has promised not to execute anyone under the age of 18. But the clerical courts do not answer to parliament. They abide by their religious supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, making it virtually impossible for human rights campaigners to call them to account.
Code of behaviour
At the time of Atefah's execution in Neka, journalist Asieh Amini heard rumours the girl was just 16 years old and so began to ask questions.
 To teach others a lesson, Atefah's execution was held in public
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"When I met with the family," says Asieh, "they showed me a copy of her birth certificate, and a copy of her death certificate. Both of them show she was born in 1988. This gave me legitimate grounds to investigate the case." So why was such a young girl executed? And how could she have been accused of adultery when she was not even married? Disturbed by the death of her mother when she was only four or five years old, and her distraught father's subsequent drug addiction, Atefah had a difficult childhood. She was also left to care for her elderly grandparents, but they are said to have shown her no affection. In a town like Neka, heavily under the control of religious authorities, Atefah - often seen wandering around on her own - was conspicuous. It was just a matter of time before she came to the attention of the "moral police", a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, whose job it is to enforce the Islamic code of behaviour on Iran's streets.
Secret relationship
Being stopped or arrested by the moral police is a fact of life for many Iranian teenagers. Previously arrested for attending a party and being alone in a car with a boy, Atefah received her first sentence for "crimes against chastity" when she was just 13. Although the exact nature of the crime is unknown, she spent a short time in prison and received 100 lashes.
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 Atefah was soon caught in a downward spiral of arrest and abuse  |
When she returned to her home town, she told those close to her that lashes were not the only things she had to endure in prison. She described abuse by the moral police guards. Soon after her release, Atefah became involved in an abusive relationship with a man three times her age. Former revolutionary guard, 51-year-old Ali Darabi - a married man with children - raped her several times. She kept the relationship a secret from both her family and the authorities. Atefah was soon caught in a downward spiral of arrest and abuse.
Local petition
Circumstances surrounding Atefah's fourth and final arrest were unusual. The moral police said the locals had submitted a petition, describing her as a "source of immorality" and a "terrible influence on local schoolgirls". But there were no signatures on the petition - only those of the arresting guards.
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Men's word is accepted much more clearly and much more easily than women Mohammad Hoshi,
Iranian lawyer and exile |
Three days after her arrest, Atefah was in a court and tried under Sharia law. The judge was the powerful Haji Rezai, head of the judiciary in Neka. No court transcript is available from Atefah's trial, but it is known that for the first time, Atefah confessed to the secret of her sexual abuse by Ali Darabi. However, the age of sexual consent for girls under Sharia law - within the confines of marriage - is nine, and furthermore, rape is very hard to prove in an Iranian court. "Men's word is accepted much more clearly and much more easily than women," according to Iranian lawyer and exile Mohammad Hoshi. "They can say: 'You know she encouraged me' or 'She didn't wear proper dress'."
Court of appeal
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 She was my love, my heart... I did everything for her, everything I could Atefah's father
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When Atefah realised her case was hopeless, she shouted back at the judge and threw off her veil in protest. It was a fatal outburst. She was sentenced to execution by hanging, while Darabi got just 95 lashes. Shortly before the execution, but unbeknown to her family, documents that went to the Supreme Court of Appeal described Atefah as 22. Neither the judge nor even Atefah's court appointed lawyer did anything to find out her true age," says her father. And a witness claims: "The judge just looked at her body, because of the developed physique... and declared her as 22." Judge Haji Rezai took Atefah's documents to the Supreme Court himself. And at six o'clock on the morning of her execution he put the noose around her neck, before she was hoisted on a crane to her death.
Pain and death
During the making of the documentary about Atefah's death the production team telephoned Judge Haji Rezai to ask him about the case, but he refused to comment. The human rights organisation Amnesty International says it is concerned that executions are becoming more common again under President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad, who advocates a return to the pure values of the revolution. The judiciary have never admitted there was any mishandling of Atefah's case. For Atefah's father the pain of her death remains raw. "She was my love, my heart... I did everything for her, everything I could," he says. He did not get the chance to say goodbye.
Shows you the hypocrisy of the american bashing elitists at the EU.
It was front page news all over Europe for weeks and the Austrian city council of Graz had Arnold Schwartzenegger's name removed from a stadium because he refused to stay the execution of a LA gang leader that murdered multiple people in cold blood and refused to admit to his crimes or apologize for his actions.
But China and Iran kill hundreds a year, including hanging teenage girls, and not a sound out of the EU.
Hypocrites.
Mahmoud Ahmedinajad is the one that needs to be hanged from the crane . Let's do it
Time for Al-Jazeera to play this video again......
http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=null
I heard this program caused a firestorm around the middle east.
She completely pwned the Islamderthal on that show. All that idiot could come up with was "Your a heretic!"
It wasn't front page for weeks. It wasn't on the front page for days.
Please note that the article which prompted you is from an EU source. I see nothing on American TV about this.
Hypocrites
Why did this take two years to get out? Although I don't doubt it, I smell a propaganda ploy from those who are preparing us for war with Iran (not that that's a bad thing).
| Posted by backhoe to jwalburg; All On News/Activism 07/28/2006 5:49:33 AM EDT · 24 of 31 Kicking and screaming, Atefeh was left dangling for 45 minutes from the arm of the crane as the crowd sobbed and - under their breath - damned the mullahs. Yes, they did not even make an attempt to kill her humanely- a common feature of middle-east executions. A blogger I highly recommend-- Atlas Shrugs, google her-- has covered this "little shop of horrors" aspect of The Alleged Religion of Peace:
You rarely (if ever) read about Islamic Iran's peculiar appetite for public hangings which I try to
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When I first saw that video, I looked up her name to see if she was still living, and she is. Not even a fatwah on her head, and it occurred to me the reason may be like you said, she completely stomped them. They know everything she said is the truth, and if they did anything to her it would prove her right. On the other hand if she went on Al-Jazeera and said "Islam sucks" or said something insulting, she would have been dead by now. That video should be sent to every liberal slimebag in this country.
"So why was such a young girl executed? And how could she have been accused of adultery when she was not even married?
Because we are dealing with PSYCHOPATHS in that country! Everything else written after that quote is moot! There are no "moral police", there is no "Sharia law", those are only excuses. There`s only psychopaths who are running amok, psychopaths running that country who should be completely wiped off the face of the earth like the cockroaches that they are. They are an absolute cancer to humanity.
By the way, a good idea is to send that article to "Code Pink" and "Now" about a 100 times. Once for every time that girl was lashed.
The West is overrun with liberals who excuse these tings, even applaud them as being examples of Holy Diversity.
9 years old, what a bunch of sick ass pedophile sh*tbags! That says it all about these pukes.
Atefeh Sahaaleh (1988 to August 15, 2004) was a 16-year-old Iranian girl who was executed in Iran after being sentenced to death by an Iranian judge, Haji Rezai, for allegedly having committed "acts incompatible with chastity": Based on judicial records, by the time Atefeh was 16, she had been convicted five times of having sex with unmarried men[1] , and for removing her hijab while arguing with her judge in court.
Atefeh reportedly had no access to legal counsel and her death sentence was upheld by a Supreme Court of conservative mullahs. Haji Rezaii, the religious judge, was reportedly so incensed with Ateqeh’s "sharp tongue" during the trial that he travelled to Tehran to convince the mullahs of the Supreme Court to uphold the death sentence. She was publicly hanged in Neka, Iran, in August 2004, by the judge himself.
Man, oh, man. This reminds me of why we have such dark folk tales based on judicial crimes. I'm thinking of the judge in the play "Sweeney Todd" and the judge in the Spanish folk song "Anathea."
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