Woman who killed would-be rapist pardoned
So let me see if I have this straight…a man tries to rape a woman. She kills him in what clearly is self-defense. The woman is sentenced to death. WTF??? How can it be possible that any country that professes to respect the rights of it’s subjects allows this travesty of justice to take place?
TEHRAN, Iran √≥ A woman sentenced to death for killing a police official who tried to rape her has been pardoned by the victim’s family, a judiciary official said today, a welcome resolution to a 7-year-old case that had garnered intense interest at home and abroad.
The family of Behzad Moghaddam has agreed to monetary compensation of $62,500 rather than seeking the execution of Afsaneh Nowrouzi, the official said.
Nowrouzi, now 34, stabbed Moghaddam to death in 1997, cutting off his penis and placing it on his chest. She said she was defending herself against rape by Moghaddam, the police chief on the tourist island of Kish in the Persian Gulf.
In Iran, a married woman who is raped can be convicted of adultery and sentenced to death. If she kills the attempted rapist, she can be tried for murder and sentenced to death.
Let me just state for the record that I respect Islam and those who practice it. Let me also state that I am familiar enough with the teachings of Mohammed to know that THIS IS NOT ISLAM. Period. There is nothing in the Koran that justifies the treatment of women as sub-human chattel subject to the whims of men. There is nothing in the Koran that sets the value of a man’s life at a significantly higher level than a woman.
This is not ignorant, judgemental Western ethnocentrism at work here. Any thinking human being ought to be outraged by a legal system that sentences a woman to death for defending herself against a male attacker bent on doing her harm. No man has the right to take from a woman what rightly should be freely given if she so chooses.
Iran’s system is, pure and simple, about perpetuating the dominance of men over women. When discussing gender relations, the words “property rights” should not be part of the conversation. Enlightened societies simply do not treat women as if they exist on a par with pond scum. Women deserve to be treated with the same respect and dignity as men. Period. That shouldn’t be newsworthy, but apparently the mullans in Iran didn’t get the memo.
I respect that Iran’s legal and social system is based on Islamic principles. What I do not respect is the prevailing thought that women are not independent agents, but are at all times the property and domain of men. Until Iran loses this Neanderthal attitude toward their daughters, wives, and sisters, they will be destined to remain a backward, bankrupt Third World hellhole marginalized by their own myopic attitude toward roughly one-half of their population.
No woman should be subjected to sexual assault. They certainly should not be denied the right to defend themselves if they are sexually assaulted by a man. That a woman would be expected to use the Bobby Knight defense (“If rape is inevitable, you might as well relax and enjoy it.”) is the height of arrogance and an insult to the sensiblities of anyone with even a minimum of decency.
Women deserve better. We ALL deserve better.
