Iranian Girl Executed for Violating Chastity Laws
Feminist
Majority, September 24, 2004
A 16-year old Iranian girl was recently executed for
violating Iran’s chastity laws. According to Amnesty International, Ateqeh
Rajabi was publicly hung in August on a street in Neka, Iran for “acts
incompatible with chastity.”
Rejabi was sentenced to death three months ago by a lower
court in a northern province of Iran. Her death sentence was then upheld by
the Supreme Court of Iran. Amnesty International “is alarmed that this
execution was carried out despite reports that Ateqeh Rajabi was not believed
to be mentally competent, and that she reportedly did not have access to a
lawyer at any stage,” reports the Persian Journal.
According to Amnesty International, Iran is party to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention on
the Rights of the Child, both of which state people under the age of 18 cannot
be executed.
Meanwhile, Iran’s newly elected parliament is working
to reverse progress made to improve women’s rights in the country. The new
parliament is imposing more restrictions on women’s rights and denying
earlier efforts for gender equality and women’s inheritance rights. The new
parliament is also rejecting calls made to ratify the Convention To Eliminate
All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
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