Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Nazanin Fatehi (born 1987) is an Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian girl who was sentenced to death

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

for stabbing a man who allegedly tried to rape

Rape

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

her and her 15 year old niece, Somayeh. After more than two years in jail Nazanin was eventually released on bail on January 31, 2007.

Background

On January 3, 2006, Nazanin was sentenced to death for murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

by a criminal court of the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to Nazanin, as reported in the Iranian daily Etemaad

Etemaad

Etemaad is the biggest-circulation reformist newspaper in Iran that publishes in Tehran. It is managed by Elias Hazrati, who was representative from Rasht and Tehran in the Parliament of Iran. Etemaad translates to "trust" in Persian....

then 17-year-old Nazanin and her 15-year-old niece Sumayeh were in a park in Karaj

Karaj

Karaj is a city in and the capital of Karaj County, Alborz Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 1,377,450, in 385,955 families, , making it the fifth-largest city in Iran after Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and Tabriz.) It is situated west of Tehran, at the foothills of the Alborz...

, west of Tehran

Tehran

Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...

when three men started harassing them. The men pushed Nazanin and her niece down on the ground and tried to rape them, and to protect herself, she took out a knife

Knife

A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...

from her pocket and stabbed one of the men in the hand.

According to Nazanin, the girls tried to escape, but the men overtook them, and at this point Nazanin stabbed one of the other men in the chest, which eventually killed him. According to the accounting of the court in the Etemaad newspaper, when the judge asked her why her father had not attended the hearing, she sobbed uncontrollably and yelled at the judge: "I did not want to kill him! I am not at all a bad-doer. Mr. Judge, what do you want to do with me? I am a girl child! How many times do I have to say that I did this to defend myself and my niece?" The final court verdict was death sentence by hanging.

Based on the original Etemaad story, one of the boyfriends recall the story as : "In an instant, three young men approached us in a threatening manner and said some horrible things to us. Then, Mohammad, one of those men, attacked us with a rock. Samieh got off of my motorcycle and approached the men to fight them. Roozbeh and I were both scared, so we got on our motorcycles to flee, and just as we got on our bikes, I saw one of the men on the ground bleeding." No source has reported what independent witnesses said about the encounter. The Etemaad story also reports that at the time of the attack, Nazanin was a runaway who was disowned by her family. However in a phone interview Nazanin's mother showed much concerns about her daughter's fate and clearly pleaded for her daughter's life while crying. In the same interview, Nazanin's mother confirmed that she asked the victim's mother for pardon, but the alleged rapist's mother refused.

Reaction

As Nazanin has claimed that she only acted in self-defense

Self-defense

Self-defense, self-defence or private defense is a countermeasure that involves defending oneself, one's property or the well-being of another from physical harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in times of danger is available in many...

, critics have pointed out that in another country she might be acquitted or receive only a short prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

sentence. Iran also has a young age of eligibility for the death penalty - 15 years for males, and 9 for females.

Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

also lobbied for Nazanin. "I think cases like this are illustrative of the fact there is a serious human rights crisis in Iran; the death penalty, discrimination

Discrimination

Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...

against women and a whole host of other concerns. It really is time for the international community to put those issues right at the top of the agenda", said Alex Neve

Alex Neve

Robert Alexander Neve, OC is a Canadian human rights activist and the Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada.Born in Calgary, Alberta, the son of Robert Rex Neve and Jean Elizabeth Taylor, Neve received a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1984 and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1987 from...

, Secretary General of Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. In another public statement, On May 19, 2006 Amnesty International again addressed its concern about Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi case.

Former Iranian Miss World Canada

Miss World Canada

The Miss World Canada contest is an beauty pageant, held mostly annually in various incarnations and with several different names since 1957, to select Canada's representative to the Miss World contest. The Canadian franchise was currently owned by Upstage This! Productions, based in Vancouver,...

2003, and musician Nazanin Afshin-Jam

Nazanin Afshin-Jam

Nazanin Afshin-Jam is a Persian Human Rights Activist, , President and Co-Founder of Stop Child Executions, Singer, Songwriter, model, actress, pilot, former Miss World Canada and Miss World 1st runner-up...

, trying to save her namesake's life initiated the "Save Nazanin Campaign" and started a petition which has attracted more than 330,000 signatures worldwide as of January 2007.

Negar Azmudeh, a Vancouver-based immigration

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

lawyer, also helped the "Save Nazanin Campaign" alleging that this case demonstrates the unjust treatment of women in Iran. Azmudeh told CTV

CTV television network

CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...

(Canadian Television) that had Nazanin been killed by a man, he would likely not have received a death sentence: "Because the value of his life would be twice as much as Nazanin's."

Appeal to the Iranian Supreme Court, United Nations and Canadian parliament

Nazanin's case was scheduled to be reviewed by the Iranian Supreme Court the next week. The cover letter to the petition was directed at Mr. Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...

, the former Secretary General of the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

. Following a meeting with United Nations by Nazanin Afshin-Jam, UN high commissioner Louise Arbour

Louise Arbour

Louise Arbour, is the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for Ontario and a former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda...

contacted Iranian government regarding Nazanin Fatehi's case. Miss Afshin-Jam also addressed the Canadian parliament members regarding the matter on June 5, 2006 and MP Belinda Stronach

Belinda Stronach

Belinda Caroline Stronach, PC is a Canadian businessperson, philanthropist and former politician. She was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 2004 to 2008. Originally elected as a Conservative, she later crossed the floor to join the Liberals...

rose in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

during Question Period to ask the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter MacKay

Peter MacKay

Peter Gordon MacKay, PC, QC, MP is a lawyer and politician from Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the Member of Parliament for Central Nova and currently serves as Minister of National Defence in the Cabinet of Canada....

to confirm that he had received assurances from the Iranian embassy that a new trial was ordered for Nazanin Fatehi.

First Interview with Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi

In her first public interview in May 2006, Nazanin Fatehi replied to a questionnaire that was sent to her by Nazanin Afshin-Jam

Commutation of Fatehi's death sentence

According to Iranian Newspaper Hamshahri and by order of superior court of Islamic republic the death sentence of Nazanin was overturned subject to payment of dieh

Blood money (term)

Blood money is money or some sort of compensation paid by an offender or his family group to the family or kin group of the victim.-Particular examples and uses:...

(blood money) to the family of the alleged rapist killed.
However she was placed in solitary confinement for nearly a month. Her re-trial was set for end of August 2006.

Re-trial court ended - No verdicts yet

August 30, 2006 was Nazanin Fatehi's retrial; however no verdict was announced. The trial was supposed to start at 10:30 AM but there was a half hour delay. The trial lasted until 12:30 PM with a short break in between. The alleged rapist's family were not present. Nazanin was present with her family and three lawyers.

Nazanin Fatehi told the Judge that she has been honest from the very beginning. She extended her arm out to the Judge and said that it was she herself that came forward and gave the knife to the police at the scene of the offence and told them that she stabbed the man in self defence to protect her honour. She directly asked the Judge what he would have done faced with three attackers. He did not have an answer.

Nazanin's mother Maryam spoke during the trial and showed her discontent with how the officials had made Nazanin sign her own death sentence a few months back. She told them that Nazanin has no education and that she could not read or understand the papers they made her sign. She was asked to leave the court, she was crying a lot during and after Nazanin's trial. Nazanin's father stood up and told the courts that he had something to say. He said that it had been announced in many newspapers that Nazanin was a run-away and that he had told the Judges to go ahead with the execution. He told the Judge that he had never made such claims and that it was important for this information to be cleared for the sake of his family. The Judge said that these claims were written in their reports. Nazanin's father requested the Judge look in the files and see who made such allegations. When they verified their file they agreed that he was right and that no such claims were made.

No judgement was made and they announced that another court date would be set. According to Etemaad newspaper's report of the re-trial, Samieh Nazanin's niece also testified in her favor. Nazanin's re-trial was scheduled for January 10, 2007. Nazanin Afshin-Jam made a video appeal to Iranian Officials only 5 days to the re-trial. She also released a documentary titled "The Tale of Two Nazanins". It featured Nazanin's family in Iran and an emotional phone conversation with Nazanin Fatehi from her prison.

Re-trial result

Nazanin's continuation re-trial on January 10 resulted in unanimous decision by the five judges that the murder was not intentional. The final result was to be announced in a few days. The session started with 2 hours delay. There were many observers in this court. Nazanin's two defense attorneys proceeded with their defense. After much discussions, the judges unanimously determined that the lower court decision in January 2006 was wrong and the murder was not intentional.

Final verdict and Nazanin's release

The incident, which took place in March 2005, was recognized as an act of self-defense by the judges, however the court also ruled that disproportionate force was used by Nazanin while trying to defend herself and her 15-year old niece. Accordingly, they asked Nazanin to pay “dieh” retribution (blood money) in order to receive a pardon from the family of the deceased.

Shadi Sadr and Mr. Mostafaei, Nazanin Fatehi's lawyers, are appealing the blood money. In the meantime arrangements were made to have Nazanin released from prison on bail. The amount of bail was set at 400,000,000 Rials (apx. US$43,000). The amount of blood money retribution was $45,000. A trust fund was established by Nazanin Afshin-Jam to collect the necessary funds to post bail in order to free Nazanin Fatehi.

On January 31, 2007, Mahabad Fatehi also known as Nazanin was released on bail. In April 2007, Nazanin's attorney files objection to the part of the verdict that required Nazanin Fatehi to pay retribution.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.