Thursday, May 25, 2006

Wondering about the world

I don't normally post while at work, but this came through to me and mentioning it seemed appropriate after my post of the other day.

Evidently, a young woman in Iran in facing execution in the near future because she defended herself and a niece from rape and accidentally killed the man attempting to rape her. Since Iranian law allows females to be executed starting at age 9 (it's 15 for males), the fact that she was 17 when the attack happened doesn't matter.

Some background:
http://save.nazanin.googlepages.com/home
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazanin_Mahabad_Fatehi
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/05/17/170310.php
http://www.handsoffcain.org/azioniurgenti/
A CTV article

And, as with all things in the modern world: the Cafe Press shop for the matter.

The details are still fuzzy (and, not surprisingly, there is at least one post I found at Google Groups that claims she was caught with a boyfriend by religious police and so claimed rape to avoid being imprisoned/lashed/stoned for 'crimes against chastity') as there aren't many news reporters fighting to go to Iran to dig out the details; whatever the truth, the execution of minors is disturbing.

Makes me wonder about the role of faith in world affairs. More on that later......

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