A Persian Amsterdammer Blogs.

Tuesday 31 May 2011

An Eye For An Eye

A case that's been discussed extensively by the Iranian media is that of the woman who was blinded and had her face disfigured with acid by a man who's advances she'd rejected. By Iranian Quranic law of eye for eye she has the right to blind the man by injecting his eyes with drops of acid.

Though these cases or commonplace in Iran, where usually the family of a killed one is asked if the killer should be put to death or bloodmoney should be paid to spare his life, it's the possible blinding of a person that has caught the public's attention and has sparked the debate.

One of the articles written a while ago was against this system of revenge killing and maiming, to which the sister of the victim wrote this response. It was very difficult for me to read, as the writer sympathetically argues for the right of her sister to blind her attacker.



4 comments:

Sima said...

I did not read the article you have posted. But I would like to write my own idea about this issue.
I fully understand that this is a disaster that is going to have its effects on the girl and her family for her life. The action that guy have done is not forgettable and forgivable by her and her family.
But a justice system which allows the eye is front of eye in the society is promoting to behave like savages. It has lots of irreversible drawbacks in Iran's societies. Lots of cases, an innocent was captured as the criminal and he/she was hanged. Which is a huge grief fro whole our society.
I personally think the system should definitely stop these kinds of violence in the justice system. And in this case, it is definitely is the responsibility of the government to protect this girl and provide enough medical care for her not her family or EVEN not the poor family of the guy.

Unknown said...

I agree with Sima_in_Delft. I do not feel sorry for the perpetrator. I think he should be punished. Prison would be a great idea. I feel anger for a system which makes it possible for victims to become perpetrators no matter how righteous their anger.

Sahand Sahebdivani said...

Sima jan, I completely agree with you. Posting the article is not to give an argument in favor of this system, merely to give a human face to the tragedy. What further complicates the matter in Iran is that often the choice is either to allow the (horrible) sentences or pardon them, in which case they go free entirely. Often the families who go for the revenge option or not hell-bent on revenge, they rather cannot say, ok, don't kill the killer of my son but give him 20 years in jail.

Iranian law has to be fixed in so many different ways.

amir Madani said...

Tori,
If the killer gets only prison sentence, then how can you guarantee that he won't commit the crime again. similarily, How can you guarantee that the same crime wont be committed again by others?

these systems of punishment have been given to ensure that no one else commits those crimes (i.e. kill or acid on face). It shows the consequence of their crimes, rather than giving them prison time where they'll receive free shelter and food (using money from the state/taxpayer).