Saving Nazanin
Former Miss World Canada struggles to save 18-year-old Iranian woman from execution
"If Iranians are passionate about seeing a free and democratic Iran, then they shouldn"t just complain amongst friends; they must become active." Nazanin Afshin-Jam
It's never easy to be a teenager particularly anywhere in the world, but it is certainly more difficult in Iran where an entire nation is subject to particularly harsh and not difficult to exclaim, absurd faux-Islamic laws meant purely to control all aspects of life including the most intimate ones.
It is not an exaggeration to say that since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, Iranian women have been subject to a form of gender-based apartheid. For example, the price of donor blood of an Iranian woman, is worth half the price of a man's. Women cannot become Judges because they are considered to incapable of objective thought. The court testimony of a woman in any kind of legal case is worth half that of a man's.
Paradoxically it is precisely women who struggle for social and judiciary justice in today's Iran. The year 2003 seemed to smile on Iranian women and raise hopes for a solution to their predicament. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to an Iranian woman, Shirine Ebadi for her efforts in the realm of human rights, especially the rights of women and children. Herself a former Judge (prior to the revolution), now only allowed to be a lawyer, Ms. Ebadi won from a record field of 165 candidates, who included Pope John Paul and former Czech President Vaclav Havel.
That same year, Iranian born Nazanin Afshin-Jam was selected as Miss World representing Canada and later became the Miss World first runner-up. As if through fate, two symbols of a different generation, joined by the common pain of revolution and exile, were honored in the West, each setting an example, in their own way, for Iranian women worldwide to look up to.
Nearly three years later, the situation of Iranian women has not changed much. The radically interpreted Islamic laws continue to be prejudicial towards women, and the recent presidential election of the radical fanatic Mahmoud Ahmaninejad (who seems to have single handedly stirred a rising anti-Semitic militancy that was virtually inexistent in Persian society prior to his unwelcome arrival) has only encouraged his hard-line supporters to intensify their firm grip on the country's judiciary.
In the face of such rising intolerance within her native country Nazanin Afshin-Jam has chosen to take a stand for the predicament of an Iranian 18 year old woman ironically also named Nazanin , who finds herself threatened by an imminent execution. Her crime? Having fatally stabbed to death in March 2005 one of three men who attempted to rape her, and her 16 year old niece in a public park in Southern Tehran.
During her trial Nazanin said"I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not want to kill that boy. In the heat of the moment I did not know what to do, because no one came to our help". She was nevertheless sentenced to the maximum punishment possible under current Iranian law, Death by Hanging.
Former Miss World Canada struggles to save 18-year-old Iranian woman from execution
"If Iranians are passionate about seeing a free and democratic Iran, then they shouldn"t just complain amongst friends; they must become active." Nazanin Afshin-Jam
It's never easy to be a teenager particularly anywhere in the world, but it is certainly more difficult in Iran where an entire nation is subject to particularly harsh and not difficult to exclaim, absurd faux-Islamic laws meant purely to control all aspects of life including the most intimate ones.
It is not an exaggeration to say that since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, Iranian women have been subject to a form of gender-based apartheid. For example, the price of donor blood of an Iranian woman, is worth half the price of a man's. Women cannot become Judges because they are considered to incapable of objective thought. The court testimony of a woman in any kind of legal case is worth half that of a man's.
Paradoxically it is precisely women who struggle for social and judiciary justice in today's Iran. The year 2003 seemed to smile on Iranian women and raise hopes for a solution to their predicament. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to an Iranian woman, Shirine Ebadi for her efforts in the realm of human rights, especially the rights of women and children. Herself a former Judge (prior to the revolution), now only allowed to be a lawyer, Ms. Ebadi won from a record field of 165 candidates, who included Pope John Paul and former Czech President Vaclav Havel.
That same year, Iranian born Nazanin Afshin-Jam was selected as Miss World representing Canada and later became the Miss World first runner-up. As if through fate, two symbols of a different generation, joined by the common pain of revolution and exile, were honored in the West, each setting an example, in their own way, for Iranian women worldwide to look up to.
Nearly three years later, the situation of Iranian women has not changed much. The radically interpreted Islamic laws continue to be prejudicial towards women, and the recent presidential election of the radical fanatic Mahmoud Ahmaninejad (who seems to have single handedly stirred a rising anti-Semitic militancy that was virtually inexistent in Persian society prior to his unwelcome arrival) has only encouraged his hard-line supporters to intensify their firm grip on the country's judiciary.
In the face of such rising intolerance within her native country Nazanin Afshin-Jam has chosen to take a stand for the predicament of an Iranian 18 year old woman ironically also named Nazanin , who finds herself threatened by an imminent execution. Her crime? Having fatally stabbed to death in March 2005 one of three men who attempted to rape her, and her 16 year old niece in a public park in Southern Tehran.
During her trial Nazanin said"I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not want to kill that boy. In the heat of the moment I did not know what to do, because no one came to our help". She was nevertheless sentenced to the maximum punishment possible under current Iranian law, Death by Hanging.
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