For Crimes Against Chastity

I try not to bring too much of the concrete world into this blog because, for the most part it’s a place for fiction. However, this particular event has been on my mind for a long time – burning holes in my stomach, like a slumbering coal. I caught this video again, on @jojinbo‘s Felonious Monk Blog

Inherent in all the erotica I write, no matter how dark, is the deep belief that a woman’s body is her own. And society doesn’t have the right to judge how she uses it, what she does with it, or who she gives it to. Even though this event took place in 2004, it has never stopped haunting me, angering me, leaving me with an enraged and helpless feeling.

On August 15th, 2004 a 16-year-old girl was hanged in a public square in Neka, Iran. Her death sentence was for “acts incompatible w chastity”. Her name was Atefah Rafavi Sahaaleh. The only evidence against Atefah was her own forced confession. Atefah railed against her judge in court for its unfairness, but this was her undoing. Judge Haji Rezai, who was also the local mullah, prosecutor and head of the city administration, personally obtained permission from Iran’s Supreme Court to execute her, and put the noose around her neck himself before she was hoisted on a crane jib arm to her death.

Atefeh lost her mother in a car accident. Her father was a drug addict. At the age of 13, a 51 year old former government agent started molesting her. On the night of her wedding to a boy who loved her, she was taken by the authorities and soon after executed without knowledge of her family.

The film clips are from a documentary film made by BB2 called “execution of a teenage girl” which can be viewed in full at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=21721E855BAAF28D