an eye for an eye

CRIME IN THE MEDIA- LET’S BE THANKFUL.

Firstly, I must note that I do not intend to offend anyone from Iran or any country with laws that I will refer to in this piece in my words as ‘backward’. This is purely my opinion and as always I expect that many will disagree with me.

There was recently mass coverage in both the print media and television surrounding the case of a woman in Iran that had been attacked with acid to the face by a man from whom she had rejected several marriage proposals. This attack left the poor woman severely disfigured and in extreme pain.  What comes next is almost as, if not more, shocking. The punishment for the attacker was set be blinding by acid to the eyes. An eye for an eye. The woman who was attacked requested that she be the person to administer the punishment, as if this act would somehow help her to cope with the senseless act that left her life no doubt in a state of ruin.  The sentence was later postponed, prompted by intervention from the Amnesty International agency for human rights.

ISNA reported on its website just hours before the appointed time for the punishment to be applied, "The execution of qesas (retribution in kind) of Majid (Movahedi)... has been postponed to an unknown date,". (AAP, 14/05/2011).  

I find the fact that the Government of Iran would even consider this course of ‘justice’, let alone enforce it, absolutely astonishing. These laws are implemented through the act of sharia law that is held up in many Islamic governed nations. I feel that these laws (I don’t know all the practices involved with sharia law and am not completely denouncing the whole affair) are completely backward and am surprised and shocked that in this day and age such acts continue to be entertained.  

The media in Australia had a field day with this particular story. I believe that the case for this coverage is because of the issue we have discussed throughout the CRIM2027 course, being people’s fascination with crime and in particular those acts that are far removed from their day to day lives.  Relating to this case, I think that mass media coverage can only be seen as a positive step, allowing for more people to gain knowledge of the oppressive conditions under which many people are forced to live and hopefully encourage action against such governments that practice in such an inhumane way.

Also, let’s be thankful that we don’t live in a country where acts like this are all to common.

http://www.muscatdaily.com/Archive/Stories-Files/Iran-eye-for-an-eye-acid-attack-punishment-postponed