A teenage girl with a mental age of eight is facing the death penalty for prostitution in Iran. The trial comes only four months after the hanging of another mentally ill girl for sex before marriage in a case that has prompted a human rights lawyer to prepare a charge of wrongful execution against the presiding judge.
The girl, known as Leyla M, is in prison while the Supreme Court decides on her “acts contrary to chastity”, among the most serious charges under Iranian law. Under the penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be executed.
In an interview on a Persian-language website, the 19-year-old says she was forced into prostitution by her mother at the age of eight. Amnesty International refers to reports that say she was repeatedly raped, bore her first child aged nine and was passed from pimp to pimp before having another three children.
She told the website: “The first time I was taken to a man’s house by my mum I was eight. It was a horrible night and I cried a lot but then my mum came the next day and took me home. She bought me chocolate and cheese curls.”
Iranian press reports say Leyla was charged with controlling a brothel, having sex with blood relatives and bearing an illegitimate child. Amnesty says the court refused to admit social workers’ evidence of her young mental age and convicted her on the basis of confessions. (My emphasis) (Source)
Superiority Of Western Culture: Example #3
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Oh, La Shawn … you know that human rights issues in other countries is none of our business. I mean, women here USED to complain about the plight of women in Afghanistan … or those unfortunate enough to date Saddam’s sons.
Ah, but wait for Hillary or another lib to get into office… then 5.7% unemployment will be a stupendously low number, the homeless will disappear, and plight of the world will again be our concern. Benefits will be held, money will be raised, and all will be right with the cosmos…
Man, am I glad the Supremes say I can have psychoactive tea again…
SCCIwuzzy – will the liberals hold concerts to aid the abused in far off lands again ? Then I won’t have to hate Dave Matthews or REM anymore … everybody, all together now (a Christmas song) “War is over! If you want it! War is over! Now” (it’s much nicer w/o Yoko Ono singing backup.)
Well, you can still hate DMB for dumping sewage on tour boats, can’t you?
Under the penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be executed.
I’m sorry, but how completely backwards is that? Especially considering how little freedom at all women get, young girls doing such things are likely to have been forced into it, either by an adult or by the “partner”. The boys are more likely to do it because they CHOOSE to.
Either way it’s extremely young to face that sort of punishment for something other than extreme violence, but give me a break… when men have (I’ll qualify it…almost) all the power in a situation (as they do in those areas of the world), why are they not the ones being held accountable for it? Ridiculous, backwards thinking.
I agree with LNC. And why is it that, in general, women in these countries are prosecuted for this sort of thing WAY more often than men are? It may just be that prosecution of men is underreported, but based on my experience with the culture that is probably not the case, unfortunately. For some reason, if a woman does it she deserves death, if a man does it they look the other way.
This is a shame…but don’t we execute mentally retarded children in this country, as well? If I’m correct, I believe the US and Iran are the only country to execute mentally retarded children.
Not that I mean to compare our country to Iran, but it certainly makes me think.
Which also gets me thinking…the way Iraq is going now, I’ve heard several theories on both the right and left that believe the people could DEMOCRATICALLY (that’s what we’re trying to do there, right??) elect a hardline Islam leader like Iran has. Then, what would this war have been worth?
If there was one good thing to say about Saddam (and trust me, there aren’t)…at least he maintained a secular government FREE from all of that Islamofascist crap. I fear we may have reaped something bigger now that most of Iraq hates us and would rather see some fanatic running its country.
But, back to your point La Shawn.
Iran is definitely a sorry excuse for a nation. What shocks me so much is the the obvious “groupthink” in that country can be so fogged by something as disgusting as a teenage girl being executed for prostitution.
You conservatives say what you want about Amnesty International, but THIS is exactly why they are one of the best NGOs currently operating in the world. This is the garbage that they uncover and force the press to report.
Sure, they may get political from time to time. But isn’t that the business they’re in? Working with different politics and policies around the world to ensure that all humans are treated humanely.
I just love when conservatives demean the work of Amnesty International and then embrace it when they come out against regimes like China and Iran. I’m not speaking of you, La Shawn…just conservatives in general who have never shown any respect to the organization.
Yes, SCSIwuzzy, I guess I can still hate Dave Matthews for that tour bus crap
And, Mike, I don’t know if you were referring to my argument – I don’t demean the work of those who try to help the oppressed and poor. I save my scorn, for those who whine and complain, but then when we do something about it, they are up in arms (as NOW was in regards to the war in Afghanistan). It seems, that organizations such as Amnesty International (and the UN) doesn’t want us do DO anything … they just want our money.
LNC/Mayflower, that line also caught my eye is that it’s the same old good old boys network @ play here. Boys will be boys and well, if the girls aren’t sugar & spice and all, to hell with them. Part of the Islamofascist orthodoxy is that non-muslim or heretical females can be kidnapped, raped and enslaved at will with no recourse.
That’s why I’m glad that the Afghani lower caste girl that was gangraped as punishment for her brother’s alleged indiscretions has gotten justice under Karzhai’s administration. Folks, there’s a new game in town!! But where were all the self-righteous feminists to plead her case? Busy denouncing our imperialism.
Another reason why we should do something sooner rather than later about Iran.
Rest assured everyone, I’m confident that the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch are diligently working to correct this moral injustice! wait…I think I’m sober now…
Chris Roberts…
Iraq is giving us a dilly of a time we certainly didn’t expect. I was totally against the war but even I admitted back when it started that I thought it would be a cakewalk. It has turned out not to be so.
It was certainly easy to decimate the bureaucratic infrastructure of Saddam’s Republican Guard, but I guess we just didn’t count on the country’s own citizens rising up against an occupying force.
With that said, do you honestly believe that Iran, with a population of nearly three times that of Iraq, should be our next go-to point?
I admit I’m extremely against the Islamic state. There’s nothing more I’d like to see than that theocratic dictatorship brought to its knees. But, at what cost should we be willing to go in?
It’s just a thought I have had on my mind quite a bit lately. I think Iran definitely needs to be confronted. Unfortunately we would be fools if we thought we could take them on alone.
I don’t think we are militarily capapble or ready, nor the public populace for a move against Iran. However, we need to do something other than leave the leg work of policy to Jack Straw and Dominique de Villepin.
That brings up the interesting question, which was asked during the campaign but never well answered, did we move against the wrong country?
Iran will continue to be a thorn in our side since they sit between our two budding democracy projects. This could be the mother of all diplomatic pincer movements, provided that we can stomach the staying power to make Iran wear itself out trying to tear down democracies in its backyard while at the same time failing to squash the unrest by its own populace. That is a costly proposition and will not be done quickly as this type of warfare takes a long time (if you compare it with the Cold War).
Regardless, something must and eventually will be done.
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