Marry me...or I will throw ACID in your face and BLIND you!!!!

[MADem]

That's what this fellow said to this young lady after stalking and pestering her for some time. After she said no, he blinded her with acid. Now, she wants revenge justice, and the court in Iran is going to give it to her. While her solution is a bit, well, inhumane, I wonder if it might make some of these other acid-tossing Romeos (it's not all that uncommon in that end of the world) think twice before they do this sort of thing:


http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/19/acid.attack.victim/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Bahrami said that over the next two years, Movahedi kept harassing her and making threats, even as he asked her to marry him. "He told me he would kill me. He said, 'You have to say yes.' "

On a November afternoon in 2004, Movahedi's threats turned to violence.

That day at 4:30 p.m., Bahrami left the medical engineering company where she worked. As she walked to the bus stop, she remembers sensing someone behind her.

She turned around and was startled to see Movahedi. A moment later came the agonizing pain. Movahedi had thrown something over her. What felt like fire on her face was acid searing through her skin.

"I was just yelling, 'I'm burning! I'm burning! For God's sake, somebody help me!' "

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

"I told the judge I want an eye for an eye," Bahrami said. "People like him should be made to feel my suffering."


Thoughts, opinions? The poor young lady, once a beauty, after a load of reconstructive surgery, looks like this now:

[Hello_Kitty]

1. Oh god.

I really hate the world sometimes. :(

[hlthe2b]

22. My thoughts, exactly.... Are we supposed to devine right/wrong

on this? Her reaction, though absolutely understandable, is driving the punishment here. I'm not sure I want to see "justice" metted out in that kind of fashion, given it is the action of the "STATE" against the offender, but I certainly can understand from her point of view.

[bluestateguy]

2. I do not condone this punishment

but I do not condemn it either

[pansypoo53219]

24. an eye for an eye

might do some teaching these guys who think they can do this and get away with it with little punishment. heck. should be thrown in his face. THAT might do more.

[hunter]

3. Here in the United States our psychopath stalkers use knives and guns.

:(

[MADem]

14. The idea, though, in that cultural environment, is to leave the woman alive and "ruined.'

Death would be an escape to a better situation for the woman, you see, particularly if she were virtuous. Thus, the man wanted her alive and miserable, because he could not have her.

They have guns and knives in Iran, too, you know. But death wouldn't have suited this fellow's desires.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

15. They also use acid

it happens here too.

Police in Chicago are looking for three people after acid was thrown into a woman's face during an early Monday morning attack.

Esperanza Medina, 48, is in serious condition with burns over a quarter of her body after police said she was attacked on her way to work by two women with a caustic substance at around 6:45 a.m. on Monday, the Chicago Tribune reports.

"She has no hair," her daughter Shirley Medina told MyFOXChicago.com. "Her whole face is burned."

The woman's boyfriend told MyFOXChicago.com that the substance melted Esperanza Medina's clothing.

The victim had recently received threats and had her tires slashed, MyFOXChicago.com reports. She had recently moved to Chicago from Wyoming, Mich., the Tribune said.

Surveillance video showed the two women believed to have thrown the caustic substance, and a third suspect, a man, was seen running at the scene with a baseball bat, MyFOXChicago.com reports. He was recognized as a man who stole Esperanza Medina's purse several weeks ago.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,393322,00.html

[damntexdem]

4. I say 'go for it.'

An eye for an eye is not good policy -- but this sack of shit took both her eyes and her looks. It's something she will have to live with for the rest of her life. I'd say it's blind him or execute him -- although I don't often support capital punishment. And blinding him is better, because then he will have to live with it for as long as he lives.

[JoDog]

5. I support her

Attacks like this are horrifically common in the Muslim world, India, Pakistan, etc. Usually the men, if punished at all, get off with a fine or by paying the "blood money". This does little to deter other men who feel a woman has spurned them.

Let's not forget the position Bahrami now is in according to her society. In heavily patriarchial societies like the conservative Islamic one in Iran, a woman's position and value in society is determined either by her marriagebility (beauty and virginity), the status of her husband, and her ability to keep house and bear children. Despite Bahrami's optimism, her chances at marriage are extremely low. Not only did this destroy her sight and beauty, it destroyed her shot at marriage. She has thus been denied not only something that she wanted and looked forward to, but something that is essential for her to live and operate in the society that she lives in. That is part of the point of these acid attacks--if the woman will not do what the man wants, he can easily ruin her chances of gaining a stable position in their society. For the woman, it is the ultimate punishment.

Now, she wants a fair punishment for her attacker--for him to be denied something he needs to operate in his society (sight).

Maybe if the punishment goes through, other men will think twice before destroying the lives of women.

[MADem]

18. Perhaps some enlightened folks will start a "Blood Money" charitable fund

...that women who are victims of "Honor" attacks (yes, it is a misnomer, I'm using the cultural shorthand, don't shoot me) can access to get support so that they have the freedom to demand justice without having to worry about how they're going to live and survive, day-to-day. I find the Islamic courts pretty asinine in this regard, that people have to choose between justice or money. Real justice would be justice AND money. Or, if we're dealing strictly in body parts, the eyes and the balls--because this guy had none anyway to do that to this woman.

I suspect her parents aren't poor, particularly if they sent her for an engineering degree. That gives her the freedom to insist upon justice.

Her chances of marriage are almost zero; unless she can find herself an educated, enlightened blind guy from a good (read: financially well off) family with a large, extended family that will help her with the day-to-day chores, and won't cheat the husband out of his assets; someone who values her for her brain and not for her looks, which have been trashed pretty mightily by that cowardly jerk.

[zazen]

6. I'm not shocked at sentence as much as Iran blatantly punishing male dominance

and I think it will make many of those men who feel some God-given right to do whatever they want to the bodies of women and girls think long and hard about doing it again, at least through this technique.

He'll live.

I wonder about the men (monsters) who've thrown acid in the face of Afghani schoolgirls. . . .

[Tartiflette]

19. The Iranians have paid for some of her costs

seems the Iranian Govt have contributed £22 000 towards her medical costs, and a government spokesman wants to use this case as an example, in the hopes of it deterring others. I'd like to know what sort of prevalence this sort of crime has in Iran - the wikipedia article on acid attacks focused more on Asia, and a quick google was unhelpful.

[MADem]

26. Iran is "Asian" actually-- it's in SWA--South West Asia. Like India, Pakistan, Afghanistan.

This kind of crap is common through the Middle East and SWA. It's a subset of the misnamed "honor killings" sorta/kinda.

This ruling suggests that "Islamic law" in its own painful way is trying to come into the eighteenth century. In a perverse way, that's helpful, because at the least it is forward progress.

I sense a 'turning.' of sorts--the Islamic government is trying to accomodate the critical mass of citizens who have been born since the 79 revlolution, and who can't identify with those old gripes against a Shah (and his pals around the world) that they never experienced. All they know is that the shit on the internet is more interesting than what they have available at home within their own society, and the clumsy attempts by the authorities to block sites like Google and YOUTUBE are turning them into some of the best hackers on the globe!

[MADem]

20. I hate to sound cynical, but I think this young lady is getting a fair hearing

(in the context of that society) and isn't being bullied to take the Blood Money because her parents are "somebody." I'm thinking Daddy isn't poor--he may well own the building where the apartment they live in is located. Or Mom, or even Dad, is related to one of the Ulema.

The usual "excuse" a guy would give in court would be a blatant lie--that she behaved in an unchaste fashion, on top of spurning him, or something like that. From the accounts I've seen, he didn't even go there.

The video is pretty compelling.

[dugaresa]

7. reminds me of a movie I just saw called Crazy Love

about a guy here in the US who had his lover blinded with acid.

In the end...she married him after he got out of prison for what he did to her. It was really a bizarre story.

[Gin]

8. since men are more valued in that culture....I wonder if they will do this to him.

I personally have mixed emotions on this.....the greater good may be served but how awful the whole thing is...

[BurtWorm]

16. Just saw that too,

Very disturbing movie, just for the idea that she would marry a creep who did that to her. And defend him when he "allegedly" threatened to do it to another woman years later!

[zagging]

9. Upon seeing the before and after images, I can't say I blame her.

His appeal was turned down. He must be scared shitless.

[rollingrock]

10. Usually, the attacker doesn't even get jail time

it must be a nightmare to be a woman in Iran.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

11. Fuck The Human Rights Activists On This One. I Say The Fucker Is Getting Exactly What He Deserves.

I'm with you Bahrami. God bless ya...

[rollingrock]

13. They should chop off his hands too

then he won't be able to throw acid at anyone else.

[marksmithfield]

23. Absolutely

We could use a little of that type of justice here!

[WI_DEM]

12. Good. Do to him what he did to her.

I know that is the emotional response, but today that's how I feel.

[MattBaggins]

25. That's why it's called the Justice System

and not the Emotional Response System.

[cobalt1999]

17. If others assholes think there is a chance they will get a similiar punishment

It may deter many others from doing the same thing.

Blood money fines don't seem like much of a punishment and certainly are not a deterrent.

[closeupready]

21. Part of me says, you go, girl! and gets a kick out of seeing him suffer the same fate.

On the other hand, there's a part of me that feels using such barbaric punishments to rectify barbaric crimes is not right. So, I'm torn.

[Tracer]

27. "Crazy Love".

Just happened to catch this film the other day.

In 1968 (?) Burt Pugach had someone throw acid into his ex-girlfriend Linda Riss's face.

She was blinded. He spent 15 years in jail.

When he got out --- they got married.

Go figure.

[eilen]

28. I have no problem with the eye for eye in this case.

I think the Iran gov't should make that the punishment for any man that does that. Then maybe they will stop.