An Iranian woman accused of killing her attacker, Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, was executed on Saturday. Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, was hanged by Iranian authorities because the family of the aggressor did not want to forgive, or accept blood money. Several human rights groups have condemned the execution.
Reyhaneh Jabbari, the Iranian woman accused of stabbing her alleged rapist, has been executed. The 26-year-old Iranian woman was hanged at dawn on Saturday in a Tehran prison.
Jabbari was found guilty in the death of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former doctor and intelligence agent in 2007. In court, Jabbari stated that she was hired by the alleged rapist to redesign his office after they met in a café.
He took her to an apartment, where he allegedly drugged her and tried to sexually abuse her. She confessed to stabbing the man once with a pocket knife in self-defense and fleeing the scene.
Miss Reyhaneh Jabbari believed a third person who witnessed the attempted rape, took the knife she left behind and killed the government employee.
Since being found guilty of the murder in 2009 and sentenced to death, Jabbari’s execution had been postponed several times due to protests and pressure from the international community. An online petition demanding her release garnered over 200,000 signatures.
The United Nations, Amnesty International and numerous human rights groups all over the world, have called out the country’s Supreme Court for mishandling the case.
Those who were fighting to save the woman’s life, point to the fact that she went through “savage tortures” while being interrogated and to Sarbandi’s son testimony. The teenager has confirmed what Jabbari had said to police, there was; indeed, a third person in the apartment the day of the murder.
The young man declined to reveal the identity of the person and Iranian authorities decided not to question him about it.
Instead, they focused on Jabbari’s past and discovered that she purchased the knife tow days prior to the killing. The police also claimed to have discovered a text message sent by Jabbari to one of her friends, where she shared her plans to kill Sarbandi. Iranians officials added:
“The knife had been used on the back of the deceased, indicating the murder was not self-defense.”
Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi’s family could have saved Jabbari’s life by either accepting blood money, or by forgiving her for the crime, but they refused to do so.
Activists say while they are pleased to see the case of the Iranian woman accused of killing her rapist, receive a lot of attention worldwide, the truth of the matter is that 170 people have been executed in the country in 2014.
Islam – the religion that preaches peace and protects women? I think not.