27/07/06 - BBC2 documentary on Atefah Sahaaleh

[*Ali*]

Did anyone watch this last night? For anyone who is unfamiliar with this girl, basically she was an Iranian girl who was hung 2 years ago, aged 16, for 'Crimes against Chastity' as they called it in Iran, when it appears what really happened was that she was raped several times by a 51 year old man. There's an article here to bring you up to speed.

 

http://living.scotsman.com/tv.cfm?id=1056722006

 

I'd heard about what happened to her, as well as others (such as Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni who were hung last July, some say it was because they were having a gay relationship, others say they raped a boy, but many have come to the conclusion that it was the former rather than the latter), a few months ago whilst reading some news articles and it broke me heart. For one thing, youngsters under the age of 18 are not allowed to be executed, as Iran agreed not to do, and any death sentence given to a minor should be converted into a 5 year prison sentence, so these hangings should never have happened in the first place. Secondly, it appears that no crime was actually committed, however, as I said, the second case is very much disputed . There are photos of the 2 boys in prison just before their sentence was carried out and you can clearly see that the younger is clearly distraught and crying into his hands, it's enough to make you believe that there is something wrong here.

 

 

You can see this photo here along with others from the execution BUT I warn you, only look at them if you think you can cope with them.

 

I just wanted to see what your view was on this and if anyone else watched this documentary. I think mine has been made pretty clear and I hope it opened many eyes to what's going on in Iran and that the international community feels compelled to stand up against it (such as Holland, Sweden and other countries which have stopped returning gay iranian asylum seekers to Iran).