Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Middle Eastern Justice, or Lack Therein
I have often had reason to question the logic, ethics, and justice behind the application of law in the Middle East. Most often this has to do with justice for women. Here's another case. A woman is on trial, her second, in Iran for the murder of a man who along with two others was trying to rape her and her young niece. She was 17 at the time. In Iran, she would have been punished no matter what she did. Don't fight and she receives 100 lashes. If married and doesn't fight she receives the death sentence. In this case she fought back and has already received the death sentence, but a new trial was ordered and she may again face the same sentence.
In many cases justice is something that just doesn't exist at all for women in the middle east. It seems when a man commits horrendous crimes against a woman, he seldom receives anything near what could be considered justice. No matter what the woman does, she can expect the most severe penalties, almost as if it was her fault that some animal decides that she just has to be raped or killed, burned or beaten. There are many Muslim women who are working hard to change this ugly fact of life. Many who risk their lives doing so, such as the Canadian journalist who was killed in Iranian custody. There are also many Muslim men who are taking the brave action of speaking out against this type of crime and the lack of appropriate legal response to it. The world needs more of both if it is to be stopped. Everyone must speak out about it, in fact, if the life of a 17 year old girl is to be saved simply for trying to protect herself from human monsters.
An excellent articel on the legal concepts and religious aspects is this one.
http://volokh.com/posts/1143702317.shtml
For Amnesty International's petition for the girl's safety go here.
http://www.petitiononline.com/Nazanin/
It;s unknown if this petition will do any good whatsoever, but they have worked in the past. In any case, at least it's something.
In many cases justice is something that just doesn't exist at all for women in the middle east. It seems when a man commits horrendous crimes against a woman, he seldom receives anything near what could be considered justice. No matter what the woman does, she can expect the most severe penalties, almost as if it was her fault that some animal decides that she just has to be raped or killed, burned or beaten. There are many Muslim women who are working hard to change this ugly fact of life. Many who risk their lives doing so, such as the Canadian journalist who was killed in Iranian custody. There are also many Muslim men who are taking the brave action of speaking out against this type of crime and the lack of appropriate legal response to it. The world needs more of both if it is to be stopped. Everyone must speak out about it, in fact, if the life of a 17 year old girl is to be saved simply for trying to protect herself from human monsters.
An excellent articel on the legal concepts and religious aspects is this one.
http://volokh.com/posts/1143702317.shtml
For Amnesty International's petition for the girl's safety go here.
http://www.petitiononline.com/Nazanin/
It;s unknown if this petition will do any good whatsoever, but they have worked in the past. In any case, at least it's something.
# posted by Wil Smith : 6:01 p.m.
