Sign Petition to Spare Iranian Girl From Death Sentence

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[The debate of whether the death penalty is ever appropriate was renewed again when Iraq executed former dictator Saddam Hussein. However most people in the world that are executed are not former dictators. In this case in Iran, it is a girl who was defending herself against a rapist-Jim]

link to more information and petition

On January 3, 2006, 18-year-old Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi was sentenced to death for murder by court in Iran after she stabbed one of three men who attempted to rape her and her 16-year-old niece in a park in Karaj (a suburb of Tehran) in March 2005. She was seventeen at the time. Iran is signatory to international treaties which forbid them to execute any one under the age of 18; however they continue to do so.

The injustice of this case propelled Nazanin Afshin-Jam to take immediate action and start a petition to help save the life of her namesake. The petition now has over 200 000 signatures from around the world.

Since initiating the Save Nazanin Campaign with Mina Ahadi- the Head of the International Committee Against Execution and Stoning- and through the help of other human rights groups and individuals, they have been able to engage the UN, Canadian Parliament, the EU, Amnesty International and others to pressure the Iranian Officials to spare the life of this child.

On June 1st 2006, the Head of Judiciary Ayatollah Shahroudi announced a stay of execution and the call for a complete new retrial. Nazanin Fatehi’s retrial will take place January 10th, 2007 (20th of Dey 1385 in the Iranian calendar).

In this new trial the Islamic Republic Court will either:

a) spare the life of Nazanin and release her from prison or
b) announce a prison sentence of x number of years or
c) re-condemn Nazanin for execution or
d) ask Nazanin to negotiate "Dieh" (Blood Money) with the family of the alleged rapist and have her released subject to her paying that amount.

In the meantime the Nazanin Fatehi Trust fund has been set up to help cover her legal fees and campaign costs. See Donations page.

The fate of Nazanin Fatehi is still up in the air, please continue to spread the word about her case and the plight of other women in similar circumstances such as Delareh Darabi, Kobra Rahmanpour, Ashraf Kalhori, Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh and Malak Ghorbani and continue to pressure the Iranian Government to free these women.

From her prison cell, Nazanin Fatehi wanted to thank everyone that has been working so tirelessly on her behalf and everyone who has signed the petition.

Thank you,

Nazanin Afshin-Jam & Team at www.HelpNazanin.com

This is all very sad. But do you actually think a petition would work? You are talking about a communist country they do not pay any attention to petitions. Petitions don't even actually work in America, especially not online ones.

Iran is not really a communist country, although their electoral system has some similarities to the former Soviet Union. However, your point still is reasonable. On the other hand, in this media age outside influence can make sometimes make some difference. Admittedly, you are dealing with a non-famous girl in Iran and not Alexander Solzhenitsyn in more moderate (at the time) Soviet Union.

Still, anything that could potentially help...

(Iran's official government is showing some possible signs of changing soon, which could be a good sign)

Death sentence for self defence? Sickening.

Why isn't some country negotiating to give the girl assylum if she is released from Iran. I'm not saying that Iran is right in this - far from the truth - it's sickening. But I think it should be an option for her to be given assylum in another country on the condition that she not return to Iran.

She is wrong no matter what in those Islamic countries. If she had gotten raped they would have blamed her and her family would have disowned her. I remember reading they put woman to death for being raped. And not just put to death, in some barbaric way like stoning to death.

I understand what you are saying. There was a case maybe six months to a year ago where a tribal Afghani court sentenced a Christian convert to death but the U.S. managed to intervene with the national and more moderate national Afghani government and got him asylum in the United States. Unfortunately diplomatic relations that Iran has with most countries that have any would practicable ability to make such a move or either very poor or in the case of the U.S., simply non-existent. The countries it has fair to good diplomatic relations with (like Russia) honestly couldn't care less. To be honest, in the case of Iran, they are more likely to not to want to grant exile to show their continued independent nature. They are much more isolated then even the former Soviet Union was (they did grant the occasional exile, but then again they didn't put people to death for defending oneself against rape).

Of course, this is not an isolated case. Things like this happen even more in other countries like Saudi Arabia, and The Sudan. An example of the barbaric treatment of women who are raped (in addition to the barbaric treatment of women in general) is forcing women to marry their rapists. bizarre mentioned the death penalty for rapists. That does occur, sadly, as well. But I figure it can't hurt to get it some individual publicity.

Today is the day of the trial that retrial.

We tell this to the president then. They execute her, and we put more sanctions and embargoes in.

Perhaps Bush and nuke them, thereby killing her potential executioners. So what, if the girl ends up as collateral damage.

not bad.

I don't sign petitions. Nobody pays attention to them. I've signed one in the past, a few times. Nothing happened.

News from the retrial:

"Nazanin Afshin-Jam and Mina Ahadi spoke with Nazanin Fatehi's lawyers today regarding her retrial that took place on January 10th 2007.

They have received verbal confirmation from the court that she will be exonerated from the charge of murder. The incident that took place in March 2005 has been recognized as an act of self-defense, however the court has ruled that disproportionate force was used by Nazanin while trying to defend herself and her 15-year old niece. Accordingly, they have asked Nazanin to pay “dieh” (blood money) to receive a pardon from the family of the deceased. Once this amount is paid, Nazanin can be released from prison.

Shadi Sadr and Mr. Mostafaei, Nazanin Fatehi's laywers, are appealing this blood money because they believe that Nazanin is innocent for acting in self-defense and therefore she should not have to pay any money. Unfortunately, this appeal may take several months, so in the meantime arrangements may be made to have Nazanin released from prison by paying “bail” money into court.

Formal documentation should be available within days, including further details and specifics like the cost of bail and the cost of blood money."

updates as they happen I assume will come from from the website I initially linked to. http://www.helpnazanin.com/

That's not necessarily true. What petitions have you signed in the past?