Amnesty International issued a public statement regarding the death sentence of an Iranian teenager:
On 3 January, 18-year-old Nazanin was sentenced to death for murder by a criminal court, after she reportedly admitted stabbing to death one of three men who attempted to rape her and her 16-year-old niece in a park in Karaj in March 2005. She was seventeen at the time. Her sentence is subject to review by the Court of Appeal, and if upheld, to confirmation by the Supreme Court. According to reports in the Iranian newspaper, E’temaad, Nazanin told the court that three men had approached her and her niece, forced them to the ground and tried to rape them. Seeking to defend her niece and herself, Nazanin stabbed one man in the hand with a knife that she possessed and then, when the men continued to pursue them, stabbed another of the men in the chest. She reportedly told the court “I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not want to kill that boy. At the heat of the moment I did not know what to do because no one came to our help”, but was nevertheless sentenced to death. [Link]
The court’s judgment has, to some, further exposed the unfairness of Islamic law with respect to women. As others have pointed out, Nazanin may have been unable to prove that she acted in self-defense because of certain evidentiary rules in Islamic law that place greater weight on the testimony of males.
The women asked, “O Allah’s Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?” He said, “Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?” They replied in the affirmative. He said, “This is the deficiency in her intelligence. [Link]
Accordiginly, Nazanin and her niece may have testified that the three men attempted to rape them, but the testimony of the two surviving men would have successfully refuted this claim.
(For those interested, there is an online petition to “save” Nazanin, which will be submitted to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and others.)
The case has also reinvigorated the debate about whether the death penalty should be applied to teenagers (an issue the Supreme Court of the United States recently addressed in Roper v. Simmons), and whether capital punishment should be abolished entirely.
In India, rape is not punishable by death, however some have argued that the availability of capital punishment should extend to rape cases. Columnist Vir Sanghvi, for example, suggested that “rape is as bad as murder,” particularly because of the nature of Indian society:
It is almost impossible to recover and lead a normal life after you have been raped in India. First of all, you probably can’t talk about it. Secondly, in many cases, even when you do complain, no action is taken against the rapist. Thirdly, you are finished on the arranged marriage market and if you’re already married, your husband acts as though you are now shop soiled. And finally, far from being counselled to cope with the trauma of rape, you face a new trauma: society’s hostility. [Link]
On another note, my stint as a guest-blogger has come to an end. I again want to thank Abhi, Sajit, and the rest of the SM crew for allowing me to contribute to this blog. This site is the preeminent forum for desis and those interested in the stories, issues, and events relevant to our lives. To be able to participate in this manner was an honor. At the beginning of the month, I said:
I hope that I will able to present a unique perspective to certain issues and enrich the existing intellectual dynamic on this exceptional site. [Link]
I hope I’ve accomplished this, and to the extent that my entries fell short of this stated goal, I apologize.
The reaction to the apparent cyber-squatting demonstrates the importance of this forum to many individuals, including myself. (You should know that I was not aware of what was going on behind the scenes; in fact, on Thursday I sent an email expressing my disappointment to Abhi, and even last night I told Sajit what little I thought of “Happy Hippie”.)
This site serves not only as a marketplace of ideas, but as a reminder of how small the world truly is. Indeed, Sonny Caberwal of Tavalon is an old family friend. And, I had the pleasure of meeting Taz several years ago in LA. I hope that she will also benefit from this experience, and I’m confident that the SM readership will be as kind to her as it was to me.
With thanks, Dave
sorry to hear of the end of ur stint. u definitely provided and exceptional perspective. cheers!
it is unfortunate the situation, and i dont think petition to anaan will do an iota of good, even symbolic. iran cannot seem to be held accountable in the internation communforlarger issues, so this will be one of the things that will pass by scrutiny under the current nuclear problem.
thanks for bringing it to our attention.
PS: i am sort of bewildered how rape is considered the same level of crime as murder, even under the cultural circumstances mentioned
i am sort of bewildered how rape is considered the same level of crime as murder, even under the cultural circumstances mentioned
it isn’t just cultural circumstances. 6 years ago i was in a coffee shop and a friend was playing chess with a dude we had just met. my friend was getting taken apart and i was like “dude, you’re getting raped!” after i said this the 3rd time the other dude was like, “dude, rape is a violent crime, you shouldn’t talk about it like that.” well, i switched to “dude, you’re getting murdered.” before my friend was checkmated i must have made the reference to murder about 8-12 times, and the other dude didn’t say a word (i don’t think he noticed). my point is that utilitarian considerations need to be modified by human psychological biases: sexual violence is far more traumatic than non-sexual violence, regardless of culture. of course, cultures react to rape differently. i recall seeing a documentary about fiji once, and an indian female officer talked about how rape was a very different affair in the indo-fijian vs. native-fijian community. in the latter the family would often gather together to support the victim and their rage would be directed outward. the indo-fijian community was not similar….
i hear ya, what i meant was, i dont understand it, or rather, i dont agree.
ur right, at home, rape is such a frigging taboo, where women are in effect, raped twice, the 2nd time socially.
not deserving the death penalty though.
i am bewildered that the person was ok with murder, but not rape. i guess “dude, ur getitng murdered”, as in beat, is a more aceptable oft used term.
iran is a strange culture, in many ways, they are highly progressive in the m.e., some ways, they are the f$#%ed behind.
iran is a strange culture, in many ways, they are highly progressive in the m.e., some ways, they are the f$#%ed behind.
well…in many ways iran’s attitude toward women is more ‘normal’ than that of the west or fiji or west africa. i have argued to some extent that modern west has reverted back to hunter-gatherer values in many ways, more gender equity, small nuclear families, etc. as opposed to the patrilineages that are common in mass scale post-neolithic eurasian societies. but iran is diverse too….
Most definitely. (And I hope you no longer glorify rape in proclaiming victories.)
Dave, I really appreciate the quotations around the word “save” …actually, I would have thrown a fit if you hadn’t put them there. Naznin already saved herself, and she is now untouchable in my mind. I don’t even consider this Nazanin’s trial. Her trial was her rape, and her victory was self-defense during and after the fact. The trial that is the subject of your article is a trial for the communities that she is affected by at every level, from the intimate to the global. Dignity is a human right, not a charity that needs to be granted by IOs and NGOs run and funded by people far more privileged than she. If they save anybody it’s themselves in their claim of humanity.
Dave, I appreciate your posts, your perspectives, and the legal twist you added to SM. I’m a law student, and as such, thoroughly enjoyed reading all your posts…though I’m sure one does not have to be a law student to appreciate your stint on SM. Sad to see you go.
Sorry, in #5 I meant to say attempted rape And by “untouchable” I meant that, she is beyond the legalaties of Islamic or international law.
I think the reason why it’s ok to say “murder” in jest and not “rape” is because, in our society, we understand how criminal a murder is. We know how bad it is.
Rape, on the other hand, is not so clear cut. I know it’s one of the 3 taboos in every society in the world (incest and murder are the other 2, I think?) but as we can even see from this article the severity of its impact is often misjudged, through different societies and even groups of people within the same society. RTA, it is v. true that “sexual violence is far more traumatic.” Parodies of murder exist in comedies, in songs on the radio, all over the place. We would never do that for rape, because the consequences to the survivor can often be more destructive, and to hear it mocked maybe trivializes the severity of the crime. Unlike murder, the crime scene is a part of the victim; it’s not something you can move away from or destroy.
I fully agree that women are raped twice, once by the perpetrator and again by “the system.” As a rape counselor in America I can assure you the system is nowhere near as effective as it could be, and I can’t even imagine what it’s like in a society like Iran’s.
Is this true? Or is it an elaborate April 1 joke?
sorry to hear of the end of ur stint. u definitely provided and exceptional perspective. cheers!
seriously! we hope you’ll stick around!
the consequences to the survivor can often be more destructive
umm.. i dont think the consequences are quite as bad as being dead. i mean, first there is no survivor, seeing as they have been murdered. there is no doubt, even here women carry a stigma, and in s.asia it is faaar worse, but i would argue the consequences are worse than being dead.
death is also around us, and, we all at some pt, will die. whereas rape is not all around us, not atleast that we know of personally for most of us. its very concrete, so maybe it is easier to not necessarily trivialise, but more that it is the end all of, well, all…
though i myself would rather use dude, u got creamed, or, dude u got sucker punched, or something less violent than murder
I would beg to differ. The statistic today according to the CDC is 1 in 6. This study published in 2000 estimates that 1 in 4 college-aged women have been sexually assaulted.
I believe the best punishment for rape is Castration. It would be so much better as a deterent to rape than death, plus a more fitting punishment. Also, Islamic Law might be unfair but rape victims in India fair no better, so many of them get away with it. The stigma attached to a rape victim resides in all societies, no matter how developed they might be.
O ye who believe! When ye deal with each other, in transactions involving future obligations in a fixed period of time, reduce them to writing Let a scribe write down faithfully as between the parties: let not the scribe refuse to write: as Allah Has taught him, so let him write. Let him who incurs the liability dictate, but let him fear His Lord Allah, and not diminish aught of what he owes. If they party liable is mentally deficient, or weak, or unable Himself to dictate, Let his guardian dictate faithfully, and get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her. The witnesses should not refuse when they are called on (For evidence). Disdain not to reduce to writing (your contract) for a future period, whether it be small or big: it is juster in the sight of Allah, More suitable as evidence, and more convenient to prevent doubts among yourselves but if it be a transaction which ye carry out on the spot among yourselves, there is no blame on you if ye reduce it not to writing. But take witness whenever ye make a commercial contract; and let neither scribe nor witness suffer harm. If ye do (such harm), it would be wickedness in you
A lot of Islamic legal scholars make the argument that the above was only applicable to civil contracts (as women were generally not a part of the meccan business commnunity) and was not meant to be a general evidentiary rule applicable in all cases where women were to testify.
thanks for your posts, insights, and informative posts… 🙂
i can understand the frustration with the happy hippie thing…but sometimes this entire forum has to ‘laugh’…and lighten up… otherwise we’d be completely bombarded by all the deep thoughts and news that everyone has shared.. and possibly drown with the heaviness…
as willy wonka once said (yes, i’m quoting the great roald dahl), ‘a little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men’….something that i’ve tried to remember..
again, thanks for your time here on SM
Thanks for all your posts, Dave! Your analyses and the topics you brought up were always super interesting and engaging – definitely welcome reads.
I had to comment on this. When I was younger I was a big fan of this idea, but realistically rape is not really about sex, but rather sexual violence. Further, castrating someone doesn’t eliminate the capability to rape. Many women are object-raped, oftentimes by fully anatomically capable men. There are definitely underlying issues that we need to address re: sexual violence, sexism, and gender equality.
Just a correction, in India rape is punishable by death.
Did the rape law change in India? Last I read something about it, the maximum time a rapist could get in prison was 7 years. That is if he was convicted and found guilty. That was long time ago, they might have amended the law.
rupa, yes, irealise this, this is why i said, “not atleast that we know of personally for most of us“, that is to say, even if i knew the stats, most people generally, and i understand this is a generalisation which i am loath to do, so myabe i should say, i, dont know of people who have gone thru this. not that people i know havent, i simply dont know.
my point was that death is a much more concrete part of peopleslife, again, i am loath to say in general, than rape.
u mentioned u were/are a rape counsellor, i know of 2 others who are crisis counsellors, so to people who deal with this in that function or in law enforcement, it is much more of a daily occurence than lets say, average jan(e), who may not… s’all…
i always thought rape had primarily to do with control, wanting to lord it over someone else, to make them feel powerless… castration, chemical or otherwise, unless u could somehow psychologically change this thinking, would be pointless countermeasure, though it may seem like justice.
back to the original post, i wonder if these communities dont sanction out this sort of measure to discourage people from coming forward.. sort of best left alone so no one has to deal with it kind of thing…
Sad to see your stint end, Dave. I really enjoyed your thoughtful posts.
man, can’t believe it’s over. i loved your posts and will continue DNSI. much luck.