An Eye for an Eye!!?

[♫anna♫]

www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h5f3B-Kb1SjRRDSOe4mX8g_J1FFg QUOTE:
Blinded Iranian woman welcomes eye-for-eye justice

MADRID (AFP) — An Iranian woman living in Spain who was disfigured and blinded by a man in Iran said Thursday she welcomed a Tehran court ruling that awards her eye-for-eye justice against her assailant.

"The person who did this deserves to go through the same suffering. Only this way will he understand my pain," Ameneh Bahrami told daily newspaper ABC.

"My intention is to ask for the application of the law not just for revenge but also so that no other woman will have to go through this. It is to set an example," the 30-year-old added.

In November an Iranian court ruled that the man -- identified only as Majid -- who admitted blinding Bahrami in 2004 by throwing acid in her face because she rejected his marriage request should also be blinded with acid based on the Islamic law system of "eye-for-an-eye" retribution.

Iran's supreme court confirmed the sentence at the beginning of February.

Bahrami, who moved to Barcelona after the attack to get medical treatment, said the court had originally ruled that she was entitled to have the man blinded in only one eye in Iran because "each man is worth two women".

"But I explained to the judge that with one eye one can still live," she told top-selling newspaper El Pais in another interview.

The court then ruled that the man would be blinded in both eyes if in exchange Bahrami agreed to give up the 20,000 euros (25,000 dollars) which she was set to receive from her assailant's family.

"He will be anesthetized and will not suffer pain. His face will not be disfigured because only a few drops (of acid) will be needed, he will not have the internal injuries which I had," she told ABC when asked if she felt she was less cruel than her aggressor.

"He did not have any compassion when he waited for me for hours outside of my workplace and threw the acid on me," she added.

Bahrami recovered 40 percent vision in her right eye but in 2007 she suffered an infection and became totally blind again.

She says she survives on a rent subsidy of 400 euros per month which she receives from the Spanish government and charity from friends.

[Alpha Hooligan]

No less than he deserves.


AH

[Ben Lomond]

Mar 8, 2009 14:41:21 GMT Alpha Hooligan said:

No less than he deserves.


AH

Sorry, Alpha, but this is barbaric, and primitive in the extreme; (AND uncivilised).

[Alpha Hooligan]

I call it natural justice. And who's opinion matters the most anyway...yours, mine or the actual victim of this man (who thinks it fair do's seeing as he has blinded and horribly disfigured her for life).


AH

[♫anna♫]

The sentence against the man responsible for blinding this woman is scheduled to be carried out on April 15.
www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/world-news/2009/03/26/acid-attack-revenge-eye-for-an-eye/iran-court-allows-victim-to-blind-culprit.html QUOTE:
An eye for an eye for acid victim Ameneh Bahrami (30) was left disfigured after acid was thrown in her face in September 2004.Foto: Paco Elvira1 von 10
By A. Klinger
It's the ultimate case of an eye for an eye - a judge has given an Iranian woman permission to pour acid into a man's eye after the spurned suitor blinded her by doing the same thing.

After 17 operations, Ameneh Bahrami is desperate for revenge and has been given the green light by a Tehran court.


"He will lie in front of me drugged. I will feel my way to his eyes and then drop 20 drops of acid in each eye,” Ameneh (30) explained.

“It has come so far,” she told a BILD reporter in Barcelona, where she now lives. “I will have retribution on April 15.”

The electrical engineer was attacked by Majid Emovahedi (25) because she had constantly turned down his marriage proposals.

His whole family had put pressure on her to wed him, but she was resolute: “No, I will never marry him.”

Majid waited for her as she left work in September 2004 and threw sulphuric acid over her head. She went blind immediately.

Ameneh Bahrami moved to Spain, where she has had 17 operations on her eyes and face.

Her desire for revenge has grown. She will return to Iran, wearing jeans and a t-shirt under her chador.

“My father and siblings won’t be there. They don’t want to see it.

"But my mother and friends will accompany me to make sure I don’t pour the acid on myself when I put it in his eyes.”

Majid Emovahedi will be held down by prison officials and under anaesthetic at the time. He won’t feel anything as Ameneh pours the acid on his face. A doctor will be wearing gloves to hold Majid’s eyes open so she can squeeze the acid in.

“My mother will do it for me if I don’t manage it,” Ameneh added, “but I hope that won’t be necessary. I want to execute the punishment myself, because it is my issue.

"I don’t want my mother to feel guilty. I am sure she would because revenge is a bad thing.”

But she herself unashamedly wants revenge: “He made fun of me in front of the court. Now he is whimpering for mercy, asking me to leave him at least one eye.

"But it is too late for that.”

[chefmate]

I'm glad I don't have to be part of this revenge nor have to tolerate it in my country.

It is pathetic the man pleads for mercy when he gave her none and hurt her so terribly for such a petty reason; I would not walk in her shoes nor have to make a decision like this because in all probablity when push came to shove I would show mercy instead of blinding him which is the higher road to take and will teach a far better lesson than blinding him but it is not my choice nor in my hands.

[Big Lin]

Chris, I can't fault anything you've said in that post.

It's a heartbreaking case and if, say, a family member had done it back to the man in hot anger it would be one thing.

Doing it in cold blood - I'm not sure I could.

I also think it's better to show compassion by punishing him in some less barbaric way.

I get very tired when I hear people say things like that criminals, especially murderers, ought to be punished in the same way they hurt their victims.

Surely we've moved out of the Middle Ages in the West? I guess it's just venting for most of us but these guys take barbarism to new levels.

Sadly, Iran is just a Third World mediaeval country with oil.

[♫anna♫]

I have very mixed feelings about this case!

True vengeance and the lust for vengeance leads us to the dark side of our nature! It's the wrong way to go! There is never closure or healing if we turn to vengeance!

If carrying out this brutal sentence sends a warning signal out to a heartless person contemplating such a cruel attack and causes that person to reconsider and refrain from such a cruelty then this sentence has a justification.

[riotgrrl]

A better way to make sure that no woman was ever again blinded because she had refused the advances of a man would be to put an end to the deep-rooted misogynism that underpins so many societies in the Arab world and the 'Stans.

If we were serious about human rights, we would be serious about gender inequalities, and we would refuse to trade with states where women were treated as 2nd class citizens.

Mind you, we didn't exactly rush to stop trading with South Africa during the apartheid days, so my hopes seem unlikely to be fulfilled.

[Alpha Hooligan]

Unfortunately RG, we are dependant on oil from these countries.

In a few decades (hopefully) we will find alternative sources of fuel and the middle east can be dropped, they will revert back to medievil barbarism within a generation.


AH

[chefmate]

"I get very tired when I hear people say things like that criminals, especially murderers, ought to be punished in the same way they hurt their victims."



Linda

This is the battle I get so tired of against certain pros and mvs; they want to resist the fact they sink to the level of a murderer or lower but I can see that it is a sick way to want to punish someone and won't stop fighting it regardless of the flak I'm given by the deniers.

These people cannot accept the fact they share the same emotions with a murderer; they want to make excuses and dance around the fact but under their skin, they are the same just with a different motive but still the end result of death.

If this woman is doing this act for revenge only, I pity her as she has lost sight, excuse the pun, for what justice really is.

I just don't have it in me to be cruel back to another person.

A few years ago, my son at age fourteen was involved heavily with alchohol; he recovered and slipped into using meth...which was a worse hell.

The kid across the street that he hung with helped Dan on his descent into the hellish world of meth and I hated that boy for the very fact of destroying my life and my son and I swore if DJ ever stepped in front of my car I would kill him on the spot by hitting him....that was going to be my revenge and I felt quite satisfied by allowing that to fester inside me.

Well, one day while heading to the store, as I was approaching the small rise in the road on the way to the store, who the heck was in the middle of the street where I could hit him? None other than DJ.....my enemy.

As soon as I realized it was him.......I hit the break and ensured my car could never hit him or cause him any harm; I knew then and there, murder is not a part of my life nor will it ever be under any conditions and that is why I fight these foolish people who want to kill but cover it under the name of justice by saying the murderer deserves the same as he/she gave.

DJ is now in prison for other charges so my justice was never necessary nor needed; the system took care of his slimy butt and my son told me never to blame another as my son made the choices to take the drugs and no one twisted his arm.

[iamjumbo]

Mar 8, 2009 14:41:21 GMT Alpha Hooligan said:

No less than he deserves.


AH

what is totally ridiculous is that they're going to anesthetize the punk.

[iamjumbo]

Mar 8, 2009 16:52:42 GMT Ben Lomond said:

Mar 8, 2009 14:41:21 GMT Alpha Hooligan said:

No less than he deserves.


AH

Sorry, Alpha, but this is barbaric, and primitive in the extreme; (AND uncivilised).

don't be daft. it is moral justice

[iamjumbo]

Mar 8, 2009 17:07:00 GMT Alpha Hooligan said:

I call it natural justice. And who's opinion matters the most anyway...yours, mine or the actual victim of this man (who thinks it fair do's seeing as he has blinded and horribly disfigured her for life).


AH

the touchy feely thug hugging is ridiculous on its face

[iamjumbo]

Mar 27, 2009 5:57:53 GMT ♫anna♫ said:

The sentence against the man responsible for blinding this woman is scheduled to be carried out on April 15.
www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/world-news/2009/03/26/acid-attack-revenge-eye-for-an-eye/iran-court-allows-victim-to-blind-culprit.html QUOTE:
An eye for an eye for acid victim Ameneh Bahrami (30) was left disfigured after acid was thrown in her face in September 2004.Foto: Paco Elvira1 von 10
By A. Klinger
It's the ultimate case of an eye for an eye - a judge has given an Iranian woman permission to pour acid into a man's eye after the spurned suitor blinded her by doing the same thing.

After 17 operations, Ameneh Bahrami is desperate for revenge and has been given the green light by a Tehran court.


"He will lie in front of me drugged. I will feel my way to his eyes and then drop 20 drops of acid in each eye,” Ameneh (30) explained.

“It has come so far,” she told a BILD reporter in Barcelona, where she now lives. “I will have retribution on April 15.”

The electrical engineer was attacked by Majid Emovahedi (25) because she had constantly turned down his marriage proposals.

His whole family had put pressure on her to wed him, but she was resolute: “No, I will never marry him.”

Majid waited for her as she left work in September 2004 and threw sulphuric acid over her head. She went blind immediately.

Ameneh Bahrami moved to Spain, where she has had 17 operations on her eyes and face.

Her desire for revenge has grown. She will return to Iran, wearing jeans and a t-shirt under her chador.

“My father and siblings won’t be there. They don’t want to see it.

"But my mother and friends will accompany me to make sure I don’t pour the acid on myself when I put it in his eyes.”

Majid Emovahedi will be held down by prison officials and under anaesthetic at the time. He won’t feel anything as Ameneh pours the acid on his face. A doctor will be wearing gloves to hold Majid’s eyes open so she can squeeze the acid in.

“My mother will do it for me if I don’t manage it,” Ameneh added, “but I hope that won’t be necessary. I want to execute the punishment myself, because it is my issue.

"I don’t want my mother to feel guilty. I am sure she would because revenge is a bad thing.”

But she herself unashamedly wants revenge: “He made fun of me in front of the court. Now he is whimpering for mercy, asking me to leave him at least one eye.

"But it is too late for that.”

that is soooo cool. the victim dispenses justice, as it should be

[chefmate]

Mar 28, 2009 20:26:30 GMT iamjumbo said:

Mar 27, 2009 5:57:53 GMT ♫anna♫ said:

The sentence against the man responsible for blinding this woman is scheduled to be carried out on April 15.
www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/world-news/2009/03/26/acid-attack-revenge-eye-for-an-eye/iran-court-allows-victim-to-blind-culprit.html QUOTE:
An eye for an eye for acid victim Ameneh Bahrami (30) was left disfigured after acid was thrown in her face in September 2004.Foto: Paco Elvira1 von 10
By A. Klinger
It's the ultimate case of an eye for an eye - a judge has given an Iranian woman permission to pour acid into a man's eye after the spurned suitor blinded her by doing the same thing.

After 17 operations, Ameneh Bahrami is desperate for revenge and has been given the green light by a Tehran court.


"He will lie in front of me drugged. I will feel my way to his eyes and then drop 20 drops of acid in each eye,” Ameneh (30) explained.

“It has come so far,” she told a BILD reporter in Barcelona, where she now lives. “I will have retribution on April 15.”

The electrical engineer was attacked by Majid Emovahedi (25) because she had constantly turned down his marriage proposals.

His whole family had put pressure on her to wed him, but she was resolute: “No, I will never marry him.”

Majid waited for her as she left work in September 2004 and threw sulphuric acid over her head. She went blind immediately.

Ameneh Bahrami moved to Spain, where she has had 17 operations on her eyes and face.

Her desire for revenge has grown. She will return to Iran, wearing jeans and a t-shirt under her chador.

“My father and siblings won’t be there. They don’t want to see it.

"But my mother and friends will accompany me to make sure I don’t pour the acid on myself when I put it in his eyes.”

Majid Emovahedi will be held down by prison officials and under anaesthetic at the time. He won’t feel anything as Ameneh pours the acid on his face. A doctor will be wearing gloves to hold Majid’s eyes open so she can squeeze the acid in.

“My mother will do it for me if I don’t manage it,” Ameneh added, “but I hope that won’t be necessary. I want to execute the punishment myself, because it is my issue.

"I don’t want my mother to feel guilty. I am sure she would because revenge is a bad thing.”

But she herself unashamedly wants revenge: “He made fun of me in front of the court. Now he is whimpering for mercy, asking me to leave him at least one eye.

"But it is too late for that.”

that is soooo cool. the victim dispenses justice, as it should be

The more I read the more I think you are no right in the mental department and just waiting for someone to cross the line so you can have the satisfaction of killing them but it won't be the sweet victory you dream it will be

[iamjumbo]

Mar 29, 2009 3:30:53 GMT @chefmate said:

Mar 28, 2009 20:26:30 GMT iamjumbo said:

that is soooo cool. the victim dispenses justice, as it should be

The more I read the more I think you are no right in the mental department and just waiting for someone to cross the line so you can have the satisfaction of killing them but it won't be the sweet victory you dream it will be

no hon. i have NEVER, in my entire life, ever said that i wanted to kill anyone. while i am intelligent enough to know that there are those who need killing, i know that it is totally THEIR choice as to when it happens

[chefmate]

You can twist the words but you are foaming at the mouth to kill someone if they make one misstep in your life where you feel you can justify it.

[trubble]

It's unfair to add the burden of choice of action to the victim. A system with set punishments where everyone knows the rules and everyone can understand them is much more fair.

I will be interested in a follow up story in 10, 20, 30 years' time to see whether the victim of this vile, vile attack has anything interesting to say on the punishment.

It's hard to imagine her feelings but my instinct is that she will not feel justice has been done. She will relive the act of blinding him and that will either reinforce her anger and/or leave her wishing she could hurt him more and again or it will haunt her, maybe not regret so much as futility in the long run.

Did she give up the money? In the long run a bit of imprisonment and leaving it to the nation to deal with him would surely be more calming and satisfying? Does this act she must perform not leave her linked forever to him?

(I don't know, anyone with experience might tell me I'm wrong, but any (lesser) experience I've had of being wronged that has resulted in punishment has been handled by authorities and I am glad to say I don't know what happened in the long term and not knowing means my link with them is severed).

[trubble]

Mar 27, 2009 20:17:40 GMT @riotgrrl said:

A better way to make sure that no woman was ever again blinded because she had refused the advances of a man would be to put an end to the deep-rooted misogynism that underpins so many societies in the Arab world and the 'Stans.

If I was the woman involved I think that would be a more satisfying way to exact revenge or justice. We see people doing that as a form of closure or trauma therapy all the time. Megan's Law, for example.

Out of bad comes good, it's the only way to handle bad things imho.

[mcgruff]

If we all belived in an eye for an eye do you realize how many blind people there'd be?

Jeff

[iamjumbo]

Mar 29, 2009 15:29:24 GMT @chefmate said:

You can twist the words but you are foaming at the mouth to kill someone if they make one misstep in your life where you feel you can justify it.

i don't know where you get that. i've told you more than once that i hope that no one ever asks me to kill them. i certainly don't want to, but, i am smart enough to know that it is the choice that they make if i ever did have to

[iamjumbo]

Mar 30, 2009 17:55:40 GMT mcgruff said:

If we all belived in an eye for an eye do you realize how many blind people there'd be?

Jeff

the sad thing is that there's not enough dead ones

[♫anna♫]

I can find absolutely no news on this horrific case! April 15 was the date on which this sentence was to be carried out by the victim. The Iranians are no longer televising their executions and other examples of Sharia justice. I suspect a news blackout!

www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/views/orl-eye-for-eye-appel-033109,0,4845223.story QUOTE:
OrlandoSentinel.com
Visions of Sharia: Vengeance allowed but no less barbaric
Jacob M. Appel

March 30, 2009

Although the principle that "the personal is political" was first popularized by the American Women's Movement of the 1970s, the same wisdom may have much to teach us about relations between the West and Islam. The widely-publicized and ongoing tragedy of Ameneh Bahrami and Majid Movahedi offers a glaring example of precisely how.

At first glance, Bahrami's story seems like a tale of medieval injustice. After the Iranian electronics student resisted the persistent and unwanted advances of Movehedi for more than two years, he blinded and disfigured her in a 2004 acid attack. Such attacks are still all too common in much of Asia -- most notably in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. They are often orchestrated against women who refuse to don the hajib or who resist unwanted proposals of marriage.

Such attacks are barbaric. However, Iranian law provides for an equally barbaric remedy. Under the Islamic rule of qias -- roughly translated as equivalence -- the victims of such attacks may demand identical treatment for their assailants. Bahrami, now receiving free medical care in Spain, has demanded that Movehedi be blinded too.

At her request, an Iranian court recently ordered that sulfuric acid be dropped into one of his eyes. (Apparently, since Iranian law does not view men's eyes and women's eyes as having equal value, Bahrami must pay 20,000 Euros if her spurned suitor is to lose both eyes.)

The Spanish authorities should immediately investigate this matter. If Bahrami has pursued this ghastly retribution from Spanish soil, they should prosecute her to the fullest extent of the law.

This case is far more than a personal tragedy. If Spain fails to take action against Bahrami -- either under domestic criminal statutes or under international laws governing willing participation in human-rights abuses -- that nation will send a message to civilized people throughout the world that a person may enjoy the benefits of life in the western democracies while still participating in social or legal practices that these societies have deemed intolerable.

What will Spain then say to the man who returns to Nigeria for an adultery trial to offer testimony that will pave the way for an "immodest" woman to be stoned? Or to the witness who offers evidence to a Saudi court that allows for the amputation of an accused thief's hand? In short, the message sent by not acting will endorse the most disturbing of all double standards -- that if Muslims blind Muslims, that is not the business of non-Muslims in the West.

Western Europe has recently awakened to the threat of the small minority of immigrants who have sought economic opportunity within its borders while refusing to relinquish cultural practices that most westerners view as noxious. For example, France now imposes criminal penalties upon immigrant parents who take their daughters "on vacation" to Africa to have their genitals mutilated. Holland is considering similar rules.

Such prohibitions should be adopted across Europe and in the United States to punish those who are complicit, in any way, in involuntary human mutilation. Individuals who seek to travel abroad to witness or encourage such acts, as Bahrami has told the media she intends to do in the case of Movehedi's blinding, should be forcibly detained. The reality is that while blinding men like Movehedi will unlikely deter such conduct in the future, women like Bahrami will be less likely to seek vengeance in blood if they face prison time.

Cultural pluralism has its benefits -- up to a point. While civilized people can reasonably disagree about the regulation of head scarves, or the appropriate boundaries for inflammatory speech, nobody in mainstream American society -- or in Spanish society, I imagine -- would tolerate a state-sanctioned blinding imposed by a western court.

Jacob M. Appel, a health-care attorney, teaches at New York University.

[♫anna♫]

In the interview below Miss. Bahrami insists she is not intending to blind her attacker out of revenge! Her intent is to deter these attacks from happening and save other women from her fate!
It's still not known publicity, if the sentence has been carried out.
Pictures of Miss Bahrami before and after the attack are on the following link.
i40.tinypic.com/1036346.jpg
tinyurl.com/pu7nnk QUOTE:
One day soon, Ameneh Bahrami hopes Majid Mohavedi will be deliberately and slowly blinded. Sulphuric acid will be dropped into his eyes in a punishment mandated by a court in Tehran, Iran.

His crime: In 2004, he threw the same acid in Ms. Bahrami’s face, blinding the 24-year-old electronics graduate.

Her crime: She had spurned his advances and refused to marry him, despite numerous approaches from his family, who are also considered complicit in the attack.

“I don’t want to blind him for revenge,” Ms. Bahrami, 31, told CNN in an interview in her parents’ Tehran apartment.

“I’m doing this to prevent it from happening to someone else.”

The two met in 2002 when they attended the same university. But Ms. Bahrami said the shy 19-year-old was merely a classmate who insisted on sitting next to her and brushing against her.

Once she stood up in class and screamed to get him to stop, the woman added.

But he continued to stalk her and make threats, even as he asked her to marry him.

“He told me he would kill me,” she said. “He said, ‘You have to say yes.’ ”

His threats finally erupted into violence in November, 2004, when she was waiting at a bus stop after leaving the medical engineering company where she worked.

She said she sensed someone moving behind her. Turning round, she discovered Mohavedi, then felt a blinding pain as he tossed acid into her face.

The corrosive liquid dripped down her neck and on to her hands and arms as she tried to protect herself, leaving the young woman looking as though her flesh had melted.

Despite 17 operations, she lost one eye and has only limited sight in the other. Her face remains scarred, but she has run out of money for further surgery.

Two weeks after the attack, Mohavedi turned himself into police and confessed. He was convicted in 2005.

Attack victims in Iran usually accept “blood money:” a fine in lieu of harsh punishment. With no insurance and mounting medical bills, Ms. Bahrami could have used the cash, but she said no.

Asked by the judge if she wanted Mohavedi’s face to be splashed with acid, she replied, “That is impossible and horrific. Just drip 20 drops of acid in his eyes so he can realize what pain I am undergoing.”

“I told the judge I want an eye for an eye,” she said in the CNN interview aired yesterday.

“People like him should be made to feel my suffering.”

The punishment is legal under the Islamic Shariah principle of qias, equivalence or analogy, which allows retribution for violent crimes. The principle is also found in the Code of Hammurabi and the Old Testament.

Ms. Bahrami’s lawyer, Ali Sarrafi, said Mohavedi had never shown any remorse.

“He says he did it because he loved her,” Mr. Sarrafi said.

He told the court he still loved Ms. Bahrami, but if she asked for his eyes to be taken out, he would seek the same punishment for her.

“They must also completely empty out her eyes, since I’m not sure that she cannot secretly see,” he said, according to a report in The Washington Post.

“The newspapers have made this a huge case, but I haven’t done anything bad.”

Acid attacks on women are common in Muslim countries, often because the victims refuse to marry the assailants or as a way of controlling them.

In November, Taliban insurgents sprayed acid on girls walking to school in Kandahar, blinding at least two of them.

Two weeks ago, Iran’s Supreme Court rejected Mohavedi’s appeal and upheld the blinding.

The punishment is expected to be carried out soon.

Mahmoud Salarkia, Tehran’s deputy public prosecutor, said the publicity surrounding the case would deter future acid attacks