Home > Death and the maiden in Iran

Death and the maiden in Iran

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 2 September 2004
22 comments

By Alasdair Palmer

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".

Sharia law, the Islamic code which is supposed to govern punishments in Iran, states that unmarried people who have sex should be punished with 100 lashes. That was the chastisement meted out to the single man with whom Atefeh was accused of "committing acts incompatible with chastity".

Married women who have sexual relations with someone who is not their husband should, according to Sharia, be stoned to death - although Iran’s chief justice, apparently revolted by the cruelty of pelting women with rocks, ruled two years ago that stonings should be abandoned.

Hanging is not prescribed for either category of transgressor. 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.

That disgraceful and disgusting "punishment" has excited a great deal of condemnation in Iran among the reformists. As far as I can see, it has not produced any comment here. Amnesty International issued a statement expressing outrage at the execution (the tenth of a child in Iran since 1990) - but no British newspaper or television station has reported this.

Why not? The two extremes of pro- and anti-Muslim sentiment in Britain are now united in not expecting even the most minimal ethical standards from Islamic countries such as Iran: the pros because they think that Islamic laws should not be criticised for fear of giving offence; the antis because they think all Muslims are just a bunch of irredeemable barbarians.

Those two extreme views have infected media coverage. What would be headline news if it happened in America (can you imagine the response if a 16-year-old girl was executed for having sex in Texas?) is, because it happens in an Islamic state, apparently too banal to count.

That attitude guarantees that more children will suffer Atefeh’s fate. Of course, it suits our Government - which is pushing for greater trade links with our new-found ally, Iran - just fine if people think that criticism of Islamic judges is inappropriate because standards are different. But respecting Islam does not require accepting the judicial murder of 16-year-olds (or indeed anyone, of any age) for having sex. That’s wrong wherever it happens. We need a Government, and a press, that says so.

http://telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/08/29/do2903.xml

Forum posts

  • Thank you for printing the opinion piece "Death and the maiden in Iran," by Alasdair Palmer. He has given hope that there are still a few honorable reporters left in Europe. No one who has not been condemned to live under the ugly, despicable rule of the anti-Iranian turbaned murderers who have hijacked that wretched, tormented country, can comprehend the dire situation in Iran, and what the Iranian people are enduring. It is difficult for the outside world to grasp the depths of the daily inhumanity, humiliation, mental and physical torment perpetrated by this clan of Fascist criminals with their Mafioso style tactics. No, the people of the outside world are not at fault. The role of the media is to inform the people, yet, the media has been troublingly silent when it comes to Iran - though they were quite involved and outspoken during the fall of the Shah. Why? Where has been the outrage of the liberal media? Where has been the human-rights activists; the children’s’ rights advocates; the women’s rights advocates; the religious rights advocates; the worker’s rights advocates, the freedom of press activists, and on and on and on? (Has there been one segment of Iranian society that has been left unharmed by these wicked beasts of the earth?) The outside governments, and the media have instead ignored and whitewashed the atrocities of these criminals who have been killing in the name of faith and religion. Why can’t the world understand that these are usurpers, they are the hijackers, they are the anti-Iranians who only speak the Persian tongue, but hate everything of the Iranian culture and heritage, and have come to destroy, not to build and create. Why can’t the world understand that Iranians despise these beasts. What should Iranians do to make all understand that this clan of thugs DO NOT represent Iran and Iranians, and they DO NOT represent the Islam that they know and follow? They are a psuedo-Islamic Mafioso clan, and this sham of "constructive dialogues" and "dialogues between civilizations" with these criminals must stop, and suffering of millions of Iranians must stop. Appeasers, negotiators, and trade enthusiast, and Jack Straws of the outside world must STOP emboldening and empowering these usurpers, who have taken over Iran, and join the people who so badly want their freedom, and the liberation of their beloved homeland. This IS the noble cause, as well as the RIGHT COURSE, for the Europeans to join in earnest.

    Sincerely,
    Iran-Doukht

    • You must be a nut case....the people of Iran are well educated and live a very nice lifestyle thank you very much....my husband worked there a few years ago and he said the conditions there are very good and they have a very nice country.....So here we go again....trying to make people believe that these "poor people" need the U.S. C.I.A. to come over there and start a war and blow their country to hell, leave it a great big mess and kill thousads of their people.... and what’s in it for us???? Well Haliburton, KBR, and Bushco will get another trillion of your social security dollars to divert to their own private bank accounts just like they have done for the Iraqi people...yeah, give us a break. We are all smelling this rat.....

    • You are so full of crap. I worked in Iran several years ago and one of my coworkers was executed for drinking wine (with his dinner). I came home as fast as I could. They are a barbaric society. Bush haters will blame anything they don’t agree with on him instead of assigning responsibility where it belongs. I bet you find a way to say the Florida hurricanes are a Bush govt plot also because he won by too small a margin there last time. Geeezz.

  • we need to hang that bastard after we cut his bals off

  • I find this article to be racist and insulting to the people of Iran and the above comments to be not only racist but bordering on Zionism. Who are you to sit in judgement of people just because their skin is a few shades darker than yours? Actually many Iranians look "white" which makes a mockery of your racist argument.

    Decent people fully support Iran, the Iranian government and it’s struggle against global Zionism, if Iran succeeds in it’s nuclear program, then the world will be safe from the threat of a greater Israel, from the Palestine to the Eurphrates. People who cry crocidile tears over alleged human rights abuses in Iran are just neocon right-wing extremists agitating for regime change and a greater Israel, the world’s hyperpower.

    Sitting in judgement of other cultures and other peoples and other religions is wrong, unless, like the Zionists, they claim to be part of "the West" and acting in defense of "the Western Civilization", or Judeo-Christian "values", "tradiotion" "heritage" the only values of judeo-christian are genocide against native peoples, racism, imperialism, colonism, opresseion, hate, slavery, elitism, control and fear. Zionists are not part of this non-existent "west" when the Zionist claim they act in the name of the non-existent "west", they endanger innocent people in US and Europe and they endanger ordinary people from jewish background who oppose zionism and hate, when they act in the name of jew.

    The tragedy of Iraq should be partitioned and sunni area becomes part of a greater, nuclear Syria and shia becomes part of greater, nuclear Iran, (both armed by Russia) Israel would then know that trepassing beyond it’s borders and stealing more land and oil would end Israel. Israel should ulitmatley be replaced by peaceful means with a Secular Palestine, not a jewish state, a state for ALL people. ALL.

    • To the fool going on about Zionism, you sound like you don’t even rate in the human race, have you heard of Karma? If you grow old enough to have a 16 year old daughter one can only hope that she is not raped against her will, or are you stupid enough to be the one that hangs her if she does?

      It’s people like you that should be shot on sight to ensure that you do no produce any off spring at all. The sooner the world is rid of people like you the better.

      All people should be treated as equals, men, women, childen regardless of race or religion, and regardless if they wish to have sex at 16 or are forced against their will.

      It’s single minded idiots that keep perpertuating hate and violence and in so doing cause this never ending bloodshed. Over what i ask? Why can’t you religious fanatic fools grow up, learn to love a little, and accept that other people have their views rather than thinking that your god is the only god and thats all there is to it. If you had half a brain you would realise that there is no god at all, that when you die the only thing that happens is that you decompose and only your memory lives on. You don’t get to go and hangout with 18 virgins, but just say you did, wouldn’t that make a mokery of stoning 16 year old rape vicitims to death.

    • The fool believes media lies, where is the proof of human rights abuse? Anyone can write an article full of lies.

      Iran is critized because it does not, unlike the treasonable shah, fit into the globalization plan. Remember the lies about human rigths abuse and WMD’s that statrted the Iraq war? The same lyers are now lying about Iran to stir up hatred and war. The people of Iraq and Iran do not want your "help" they want peace, for the so-called "western civiliaztion" to leave them alone. The Iraqi people werre just ordinary people living their lives, just like Americans and Europeans, they didn’t care about politics or Saddam, now Iraq is in ruins and tens, hunderds of thousands of civilians and conscripts that would have otherwise lived are dead. Anti-Iran hate will lead to more wars, see the sabre-rattling war-mongering articles condemning Iran’s nuclear program which is urgently needed to supply electricity to the people, electricity you take for granted but you would deny this to Iran, also as a nuclear detterent against the Zionist insurgents, articles accusing Iran of human rights abuses are used to paint this upcoming war against Iran as a war of liberation, to fool feeble minded do-gooders into supporting it. God wants you to BE good, not DO good. There should be more trade links with Iran and the rest of the world, FAIR trade links, not genocidal sanctions like the sanctions that murdering millions of Iraqi children. But people call for Iran to be isolated and antagonized to create conflict and destablization, just like they did to Iraq and they dare to cry crocidile tears over propaganda pieces condeming Iran for human rights abuse, idiots who belive everthing they read, just like they did about Saddam and Iraq. Remember propaganda is designed not to make people think but to react, wake up and start thinking instead of reacting, you have a brain so use it instead of being a submissive mindless robot, reacting in the way that the manipulators want.

      The above comment is a typical comment of hate calling for anti-war dissidents to be "shot on sight". This is how people should be treated as equals by killing those exercising freedom of speech? So how is this any better than government of Iran.

      People should respect the culture and people of Iran and not sit in judgement upon them, for what would stop them sitting in judgment on you? The evil colonists spoke the same rhetoric about the suppodesly savage customs of the Native Americans and the Australian Aborigines whilst commiting genocide against them, and "helping" them by annihilating their culture and religion and converting them to christianity, this is a neo-colonial, imperialist and racist attitude and is now being repeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere becuase of the globalist capitalists who seek to erase all diversity in the world and cultural differences and turn the world into global prison. And to sit in judgement of me and assume I am a muslim, I am not a jew or muslim, not protestant or catholic, not left wing or right wing, simply a human being, a human being who beleives that God and Satan are real and knows what is going on in the world, who knows that the people of the middle east experience hardship unimagineable to ignorant people like you, because of America and Israel’s insane genocidal, warlike behavoiur or rather the behavoiur of those evil, satanic indivuals who control America and Israel (not to mention the poodle UK) and the brainwashed populations, leaders who hear the whispers of Satan and act on the orders of an evil force that can only be described as Satan, telling them to kill and destroy, to drop bombs on children. Bush claims he hears the voice of God, but the voice of God is a voice of peace, not war, Bush is listening to Satan, as all previous US presidents have served Satan, earning America the title of "The Great Satan".

      You are a fool, who lacks tolerance, who seeks to inflict your twisted world view upon the world and shoot anyone who doesn’t comply, there will NEVER be one moral system across the whole world, any atempt to establish one will cause neverending war and hatred between cultures.

    • Thank you for elaborating on these points....we need to spread the word that the Iranians are already well organized and well armed, and they know how to fight and if you think Iraq is a mess then you must know that the U.S. will get it ass kicked if it tries to move on Iran. We should all start a campaign in each state to eliminate any congressperson or senator that will not cut off funding to Israel. They are the biggest threat to world peace and they are a bunch of inbred nut cases......to be feared even more than Osama.......spread the word the Zionists are on the top of the list of terror organizations and we should all be informed and demand that our government start to deal with them the way they need to be delt with, isolated and blockaided, all "aid" cut off from them....we all know that the only thing that means anything to the Jews is money and peace in this region will only be interesting to them when the Americans stop giving them their God $$$.

    • you are seriously screwed in the head!

    • You said:
      "Sitting in judgement of other cultures and other peoples and other religions is wrong, unless, like the Zionists, they claim to be part of "the West" and acting in defense of "the Western Civilization", or Judeo-Christian "values", "tradiotion" "heritage" the only values of judeo-christian are genocide against native peoples, racism, imperialism, colonism, opresseion, hate, slavery, elitism, control and fear."

      Frankly, the murder of a 16 year old girl for having sex has no part of any thing worthy of the name culture, civilization, or religion. It’s pure animal savagery - in the West only America executes minors, but not for offenses less than murder. Nowhere in the West can you be jailed simply for practicing or proselytizing Islam; in most of the Islamic world, you can be jailed for promoting any other religion. Therefore, the Muslim world, not the West, is guilty of "sitting in judgement". This is a shame; when Europe was still backward and primitive, the Islamic world was a shining beacon of culture, scholarship, civilization, and tolerance. Now the situation is reversed. The sooner Muslims look in their hearts and confront the murderous daemon in their midst, the sooner Islam will once again stand for peace, brotherhood, and tolerance, and join the rest of the world in prosperity.

  • i would like to respond to a comment written by one your readers ! what does the hanging of a 16 years old girl has anything to do with iraq and zionist !??
    i just hope that one day...what happened to that 16 years old girl...happen to your daughter...then we will see if you are still going to come here and talk about iraq and blame zionist !?

    ........reza .

    • So you wish evil upon other children to teach me a lesson like a hypocrite? Why is your mind so poisoned with hate? Unlike you I see the bigger picture, that anti-iranian propaganda is part of something much bigger, to justify the coming war against Iran, to blindly focus on alleged incidents in Iran whilst ignoring the rest of the middle east situation, nations like Iran and Syria are struggling to survive against the Zionist occupation, the very survival of these peoples is at stake, if the Zionists could, they would exterminate the entire Arab and Iranian peoples tommorow, they are not strong enough to do that yet, but with America the genocide against the Iraqi people is already underway, in the Abu Ghraib death camp. Zionism has nothing to do with a jewish homeland, they were offered a homeland twice in Africa and rejected it twice, Zionism is about world domination and if they cannot dominate they will destroy, use their WMD to destroy all life on Earth and turn it into a barren rock.

      The fact is war with Iran is coming, the next stage in this insane third world war, next will be Syria, after Iraq, anything, repeat, anything is possible, people didn’t believe that war against Iraq would ever happen but it did and it happened becuase the populations of America, Britain and Israel were brainwashed by the media into supporting war, at this time all media critical of Iran is extremly dangerous as it can influence the chance of war breaking out. The question is: does the article increase or decrease the possibility of war? Unfortunatly by the hateful comments posted here, already people are so intoxicated with hate that war against Iran will look more and more likely as the mainstream media turn up the propanganda about WMD and human rights in Iran, inciting violence and war against Iranians, Arabs and Muslims. The Iranians are not going to fall, they will resist like the Iraqi resistance, millions of American soldiers will die in the invasion, it will be the end of America as a world power, which is what the Zionists want, as no world power will be allowed except Zion. unless you ignorant people wake up and stop the hate, then war with Iran is guranteed.

      SPREAD THE WORD: WAR WITH IRAN AND SYRIA IS COMING UNLESS THE PEOPLE RESIST THE US-UK-ISRAEL AXIS OF EVIL, MAXIMUM RESISTANCE AND MAXIMUM DISSENT AGAINST THE BUSH AND BLAIR REGIMES IS CAN STOP IT!

    • This "person" who claims that war with Iran is imminent is so off base that it’s comical. If the U.S. wanted to destroy Iran it can do it in a moments notice. The military capability at the disposal of the president would wipe out Iran. Turn it in to a glass parking lot. But the U.S. doesn’t operate that way. We are a nation of people who enjoy freedom, not repression. We believe that ALL people of the world should have the chance to enjoy their life and not worry if the government is going to execute you because you worship differently, or choose to wear clothing that others may find offensive. We believe that the majority should decide the laws of the nation, not the opinions of a few power hungry individuals who have a warped sense of morality. Iran will implode one day and the clerics who are in charge now will be replaced with a more democratic form of government. The Iranian people are intelligent and well educated and will not stand for repression of basic freedoms much longer. They are eager for a voice of their own.

      In response for this Zionist-West conspiracy of world domination, did you just just fall off the paranoid wagon? Yes, I will admit that the U.S. has invaded other countries in the past but can you name me one that we are still in? We invaded Europe to drive out the Germans. We invaded Panama to depose a despot who was getting rich shipping drugs to America. We invaded Grenada when the government got out of control and our citizens felt threatened.

      Not to say we haven’t made our mistakes though. Vietnam was probably our largest followed by Lebanon but are we still in either of those countries? We were only there after being asked by the government in charge at the time.

      If there was a Zionist-West conspiracy then there would have been wars a long time ago and the middle east would have been in the West’s hands for a long time now. But the truth is it’s not. We still beg for the crude oil that you rape us for. Israel has not expanded it’s borders since the last time IT was attacked by a consortium of arab nations and you all are still in control of your own countries.

      If you look at history and attitudes of the middle east in recent history you will see that YOU are the aggressors. How many wars did Saddam start? After Iran was in a long and very bloody war are you going to sit there and tell me he should have stayed in power? How many of his own people did he have butchered? Why do so many of your countries impose such restrictive laws of basic freedoms (religion, speech, and such). Why is the middle east so afraid of democratic societies? If you look at Turkey it is a muslim nation with a democratic government and it is doing just fine.

      You complain of the Zionist Israel and that they should give back the ancient homeland of Palestine. But if you look in history, Israel was there LONG before Palestine so why don’t the Palestinians go to Africa? Israel is willing to live with the Palestinians by dividing the land so each have their own country but Hamas and other groups do not want that. It is written in their edict that they will not stop until Israel is destroyed. If you were a nation wouldn’t you fight back for your survival? In my opinion, you are the one that is brain washed by the radical teachings of extreamist instead of looking at all of the facts from all of the world and forming your own opinion.

    • Hanging a 16-year old girl for fornication is cruel. That her male companion was not also hanged shows a brutal suppression of women by the culture. Obviously, the culture needs to be changed.

      There are other grotesque examples from the Middle East, such as a father killing his own daughter for defiling the family name by having been raped.

      But drawing global geopolitical implications from such events, such as in many earlier comments about Zionism and war starting in Iran and Syria, is far-fetched.

      Let us all instead focus on resolving such cultural monstrosities by peaceful means. Going to war is only justified by major aggression.

    • Iraq....the war for the oil barons.....

    • Is it up to the people of the U.S. to do government changes for every other country in the world???? and if you say yes, then I say America is full of imperialists who believe it is up to them to be the cop/bullys of the world. Americans should mind their own business, their country is full of crime. Full of uneducated robots who believe anything their Soviet style government hands them even if it is crap.....full of themselves.

      We are the laughing stock of the world, only Israel won’t laugh out loud because they are on the taxpayer gravytrain. The military industrial complex money for death business.

      Terror is the product of years of our C.I.A. covert operations. If we were to learn to mind our own business, maybe we could live like the Canadians or even the Mexicans free of terrorist acts. Our country could prosper. Maybe we could afford to educate our people and address the real problems like cancer and aids.

      George Herbert Walker Bush is a C.I.A. man and once a member always a member, like the maffia. Oliver North tried to tell us that the C.I.A. is our shadow government, a shadow that is becoming like an eclipse of darkness over our country as they expose us to more and more hatred and war.

      The sad thing is that it is all so that the military industrial complex can make profit off of war and hatred and division from one people against another, one religion against another. We must always have an enemy state to wage war with. How else could they make trillions off of weapons of mass destruction that this country engages in research for and development of shamelessly by promoting phony fear and bogus threats? It is the C.I.A.’s job to create enemys faster than we can eliminate them thus always justifying more money for armaments.

  • ok people...here i am asking you again !!...what does the hanging of a 16 year old girl has anything to do with ’’bush’’..zionism..and the war in iraq?
    only answer this!!...is it right to hang a 16 year old girl or not?...ha...answer that !!...i do not want to know about weather you had a good time in iran or not...i do not want to know what you would do if u.s.a attacks iran..ok?...it is just a simple question ....but the answer to that would show if you deserve to be called a human or not !
    .......... reza..........

    • NEVER, under any circumstances should a 16 year old child of either gender be put to death. Children at that age may sometimes act like adults but they are far from being mature enough to be considered adults. Any society that condones such behavior is barbaric and inhuman.

    • Evade Evade Evade the real issue. Just blame the Jews to avoid having to deal with your own problems. A time honored tradition. Pathetic.
      Murdering this poor girl was a sin. The Iranian people will hopefully rise up and give these facistic mullahs a taste of their own medicine. The rest of the world is ready to make alliances with a strong, but peace loving Iran.
      I predict that in 15 years the Iranians and the Israelis will be allies. They were once before and they will likely be so again once the Israelis have secure, permanent borders and the Iranians have gotten rid of their theoacratic fascists.

    • Maybe....if they get rid of that criminal Sharon, and stop the holocaust against the Palestinians anything is possible...

    • Or the Palestinians stop the murderous holocaust against Israel. That sword cuts two ways. I don’t see the Israelis planting bombs in Palestinian shopping areas or busses. I only see them trying to stop the suicide bombers from killing any more innocent Israeli citizens. At least the Isaelis try and target the groups that are trying to kill them. Not just the innocent.

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