Remember Atefeh Rajabi

Never heard of her? Rajabi was a 16 year-old girl in Iran who was hauled before a "court" for allegedly having sex with an older man. The man got 100 lashes. The girl was publicly hanged for her "sharp tongue".

Atefeh Rajabi appears to have been a fairly normal 16-year-old: sulky, disobedient, and eager to have sex. In London, those attributes earn lectures from parents and teachers on the importance of acting responsibly and not being offensive. In the city of Neka in Iran, where Atefeh Rajabi comes from, they get you hauled up in front of a judge.

Atefeh's typical teenage behaviour meant that she was charged and found guilty of "acts incompatible with chastity". The judge in the Islamic court ruled that the appropriate penalty was death. That's right: death. Her sentence was confirmed by Iran's Supreme Court.

Two weeks ago, on August 15, the 16-year-old girl was hung from a crane in the main square of Neka, in full public view, in order to keep "society safe from acts against public morality".
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So what was the judge (one Haji Rezaie) doing sentencing an "unchaste" 16-year-old to hang? He said that she had a "sharp tongue" and had "undressed in court".

It seems that all she did was to take off her headscarf and insist that she was the victim of an older man's advances: but even if she had stripped naked and called the judge a fat ignorant bastard, those actions would hardly merit death, even under Islamic law. Nevertheless, the judge was so outraged that he decided he would personally put the noose round the child's neck.

It's always worth remembering stories like this, when you hear people talking about how we should try to "build bridges" with Iran. Alas, it's up to us to keep the story alive, since you know the "Free Mumia" crowd won't have a damn thing to say about it.

Posted by damian at August 30, 2004 06:52 AM