Iranian authorities are trying to determine whether a young woman sentenced to hang had a mental age of only eight - an inquiry which could save her from the noose, an official said on Sunday.
| I doubt if anything comes of it. You're not seriously Islamic if you don't hang the retarded... |
Nineteen-year-old "Leila M", from the central city of Arak, was sentenced to death for fornication, but human rights groups argued she had the mind of a young child and had been forced into prostitution at the age of eight. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said certain European countries had hijacked her case to hurl propaganda against the Islamic Republic. "The issue of her being mentally-impaired has been referred to respective bodies for investigation," he told news conference. "A death sentence is not important, as long as it is not carried out."
| Maybe not to you. I'll bet it'd be important to her, if she had a functioning mind... |
Pre-marital and extra-marital sex is banned in Iran, the former carrying a sentence of 100 lashes. But if the crime is repeated it can lead to a death sentence. Hanging is the most usual death penalty in Iran, but some adulterers have been stoned.
"It's their culture. We have no right to an opinion."
"Oh, yeah? Then why do they have a right to bitch about Bay Watch?" |
Tehran is under pressure from international groups to end stoning. Iranian media last week quoted judiciary officials saying the stoning of Hajieh Esmailvand for adultery in the northern city of Jolfa had been suspended, pending appeal. The United Nations, in a resolution this month, condemned Iran's record on public executions, floggings, arbitrary sentences, torture and discrimination against women. Atefeh Rajabi, believed by lawyers and diplomats who saw her birth certificate to have been only 16, was hanged in August in the Caspian Sea port of Neka for sex before marriage. Iranian officials insisted she was in her early 20s. |