Iran plans to execute child bride, charged with killing abusive husband
Twenty-two-year-old Zeinab Sekaanvand is in jail, awaiting execution.
Charged with killing her husband when she was 17, she confessed to the murder but later recanted, saying her brother-in-law committed the crime and pressured her to take responsibility.
Now, her cause has galvanized civil rights groups like Amnesty International, which says that she did not receive a fair trial and that Iran has a record of executing juvenile offenders.
But any day now, she could be hanged.
Her story begins in a small village in northern Iran.
When she was 15, Sekaanvand, who comes from a poor, conservative family, ran away from home to elope with a man she thought was her key to a better life.
The marriage quickly turned sour. Sekaanvand says that her husband began physically and verbally abusing her. When she went to the police, they failed to investigate the allegations, according to human rights groups. Her husband refused her requests for a divorce, and she couldn't return to her parents, who had disowned her for eloping.
At 17, Sekaanvand was arrested and accused of stabbing and killing her husband. According to Amnesty International, she was held in a police station for 20 days, where she said she was repeatedly beaten before she confessed to the crime, and she was not provided with a lawyer.
Later, Sekaanvand told the court that her brother-in-law, who had raped her several times, was responsible for the murder — and that she only admitted to it because he coerced her to do so. Under Islamic law in Iran, the relative of a murder victim can pardon the offender and accept financial compensation instead of jail time. According to Sekaanvand, her brother-in-law promised to pardon her if she confessed.
But soon after, the Iranian judiciary sentenced her to death by hanging.
Now international activists are urging the Iranian government to halt Sekaanvand's impending execution. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups are encouraging people to tweet their support for Sekaanvand using #SaveZeinab — and write to the Iranian government expressing concern over this case.
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/10/14/497964594/iran-plans-to-hang-child-bride-charged-with-killing-her-husband
= new reply since forum marked as read
