"Acts incompatible with chastity."

[elfs]

Iran has executed a sixteen year old girl for "acts incompatible with chastity," in the northern province of Mazandaran." There are suggestions from the press that the girl may have been mentally retarded, and the Iranian press can find no indication that the girl was competently advised by a lawyer at the hearing where she was condemned.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say, guiltlessly, that that's barbaric. I'm also pleased to see Amnesty International say that multiculturalism is bunk.

Comments

[cabrius.livejournal.com]

The reports (http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=80) I've seen (http://forum.spiegel.de/cgi-bin/WebX?229@122.obPdbhYSeXV%5E0@.ee76ea6/3044) paint it as being a case of petty revenge by the judge after being insulted by her in the courtroom rather than some sort of standard punishment. It's still pretty damning that a judge could get so bent out of shape over such a trivial matter, and even worse, railroad it through the legal system without opposition...

I wonder

[mothball-07.livejournal.com]

If the reports of her mental capability are tied to her apparent defiance in court? Behavior well outside the social norm is often seen that way (and sometimes mental health is defined in those terms.) It would certainly be in keeping with our own historical perception of women who did not 'keep their place'.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

Uh, how exactly would you define the word "petty" as in "petty revenge"?

[cabrius.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, it was poorly placed. "Revenge over a petty matter" would be better.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

From the link:

>> Although according to her birth certificate she was only 16 years old, the local court falsely claimed that she was 22.

>> Three months ago, during her appearance before the local court, fiercely angry the young girl hurled insults at the local judge, Haji Reza, who is also the chief judicial administrator of the city, and it is said as another expression of protest took off some of her clothes in the courtroom. This act by the young girl made the administrator so furious that he evaluated her file personally and in less than three months received a go-ahead from the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Court for her execution. The animosity and anger of Haji Reza was so strong that he personally put the rope around the girl’s delicate neck and personally gave the signal to the crane operator, by raising his hand, to begin pulling the rope.

>> The 16 year old girl’s male companion, who had been arrested as well, received 100 lashes and, after the Islamic punishment was carried out, released.
Effectively, she was executed for treason. She publicly defied the authority of a religious cleric. She is lucky that she was hanged instead of being whipped to death.

Notice that the age of the male partner (in all probability, the sexual aggressor based on the other comments in other articles) was not given.

I have trouble reconciling her punishment with the principles of fundamentalist Islam. If she is not sane, she is not responsible for her actions. If she is sane, she should be punished in such a way that she will not repeat the offense. Cutting her tongue out would have been more than sufficient.

(Tongue in cheek, so no flames please.)