On August 15th 2004, a 16-year-old girl was hanged in a public square in Neka, Iran, a small industrial town by the Caspian Sea. Her death sentence was for crimes against chastity. Her name was Atefah 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. Using undercover footage, eyewitness accounts and drama recontruction, this film tells an unforgettable story of the life and tragic death of an ordinary teenage girl under Iran’s mullahs.
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Who Is Atefah Sahaaleh…
I have frequent conversations here with my friends….political conversations. Several of my friends are of the opinion that we, meaning the United States government, has no business trying to force our belief system on other countries. That we, the Un…
unbelievable!
Nuke the fuckin bastards…lets hang a few pieces of garbage here in states and take the fuckin oil…..
Atefeh sahaale was just a 16 year old girl who was seduced into having sex with an old man and then refered to az a whore and sentenced to death under the islamic law just because she had sex outside marriage.
Now If this is a right decision under islam then %90 of people around the world should be executed in public because they had sex outside marriage, the most dramatic part of atefe’s story is that she was just 16 and in the iranian media she was claimed to be 22!!! just to justify the judge’s verdict.
Now this is what’s happening in Iran and it will continue to happen…
We want everyone to have what we have democracy and a system of justice that is as close to fair as we can manage. In Iran they are ruled by the Koran and religious leaders. Who are we to impose our will on people that believe what they are doing is gods will. If the people want change they will bring it about. If they can make a bomb to kill our troops they can overthrow an unrighteous government. It is there responsibility to do the right thing for themselves.
Something must be done; a petition, a movement, something to stop these horrible acts. I understand we have soldiers fighting for our rights, as well as theirs, but there must be something we can do, I can do, over here in the United States. Atefah isn’t the first and I am sure she will not be the last.
Todd Christian, doubt you’ll ever read this, but for anyone else that agrees, here is the problem!: “As a signatory of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, Iran has promised not to execute anyone under the age of 18.” The girl was 16 years old, the media, and the judge falsified her age to make it seem acceptable that she be hanged as a whore. Got it? I really hope you and yours do.
And no, I’m not religious, not in the least, but I can see a messed up situation when it’s dancing in front of me.
This judge, Haji Rezai, is real human scum. Iran has some real dogs as judges.
Also,
The two arresting “moral” policemen were convicted of running a child prostitution ring.
Is it possible that this judge, Haji Rezai, rushed her execution through, that he was involved in the prostitution ring?
joe g.
This is an ablosute outrage.
I can’t beleive that this really happened! It makes me sick to think that only a girl a year older than I could be hanged, when it wasn’t even her fault!
What is wrong with this world?