An Eye for an Eye

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/28/iran-acid-attack-sharia-law

•Robert Tait in Istanbul guardian.co.uk, Friday November 28 2008 00.01 GMT.

A man who blinded a woman in an acid attack after she spurned his marriage proposals has been sentenced to the same punishment, in a literal application of Iran's sharia eye-for-an-eye laws.

In a highly unusual judgment, Tehran province criminal court ordered Majid Movahedi, 27, to be blinded in both eyes from drops of acid in response to a plea from his victim, Ameneh Bahrami.

The punishment is legal under the sharia code of qisas, which allows retribution for violent crimes. The court also ordered Movahedi to pay compensation to the victim.

Bahrami was left horrifically disfigured after Movahedi threw a jar of acid in her face as she walked home from work in a busy Tehran neighbourhood in October 2004. She had previously complained to police about being threatened and harassed by Movahedi, who she had known while they were both university students, but had been told no action could be taken.

Since the attack, Bahrami has undergone 17 operations, some by surgeons in Spain, in an unsuccessful attempt to reconstruct her face. Her injuries led to the loss of one eye and left her blind in the other. The Iranian government has paid £22,500 towards her treatment.

Testifying in Movahedi's presence, she told the court that she wanted "to inflict the same life on him that he inflicted on me". Asked by the judge if she wanted Movahedi's face to be splashed with acid, she replied: "That is impossible and horrific. Just drip 20 drops of acid in his eyes so he can realise what pain I am undergoing."

Bahrami, an electronics graduate who worked for a medical engineering company before the attack, said Movahedi's family had asked her to marry him several times, but she had refused. Movahedi later threatened to kill her, she said, after saying that he had built his dreams around her.

Moments before the attack, she sensed she was being followed and tried to get away. But Movahedi caught up with her and stepped in front of her, before throwing acid in her face, leaving her screaming in pain.

Movahedi said he decided to attack Bahrami after she told him she had married someone else, and pleaded with him to leave her alone.

"I decided to splash acid on her face so her husband would leave her and I could have her," he told the court. He said he had earlier contemplated suicide.

Asked if he would still be prepared to marry Bahrami despite her injuries, Movahedi replied: "Yes. I love her."

Tehran's deputy public prosecutor, Mahmoud Salarkia, said the publicity surrounding the case would deter future acid attacks. "If this sentence is properly publicised in the media, it will stop the repetition of such incidents," he told the news website Tabnak. "Awareness of the punishment has a huge deterrent effect in stopping social crimes."