Considered as Adults

As is well known, Iran, contrary to international law, permits the execution of minors. Here's a story from Iran Focus, about a youth of 17 whose death sentence for murder has been confirmed by the Supreme Court. What caught my eye, though, was this:

Under Iranian law, girls above the age of nine and boys above the age of fifteen are considered as adults and could be executed for capital offences.

Can this be true? If so that's surely an astonishing admission of sheer unadulterated misogyny.

It's not, of course, that I wasn't aware of how much women are discriminated against in Iran, and in most other Muslim countries too for that matter. It's a central feature of the whole enterprise. But, perhaps naively, I'd assumed that there was at least some consistency about it, some supposed justification in terms of women's child-like lack of sense; a belief that women are kind of glorified domestic pets who need men to look after them, and are occasionally, when the old sexual urge gets a little strong, unwrapped for some action then wrapped up again and stuck back in the kitchen ready for the next time. Which is to say, women are supposed to be less responsible, less adult, less mature. So you'd expect that they'd be cut some slack, as it were, when it came to being hung. But here we are being told, if Iran Focus is to be believed, that when it comes to being executed women are suddenly more responsible, not less....to the tune of six years.

I haven't managed to confirm that, but I did find this snippet:

The scenario is worse in case of girl child offenders. In Iran, where Sharia or the Islamic Law, rules, a women cannot be executed if she is a virgin and hence permits legal rape.

And again, from a talk by Lily Mazahery at Harvard last year, speaking here of the execution of 16-year-old Atefeh Rajabi for adultery:

The judge who presided over Atefeh's sham trial and sentenced her to death by public hanging is reported to have raped Atefeh himself before he personally placed the noose around her tiny neck. The so-called justification for such despicable act of savagery is the Sharia legal system, put in place by the Islamic Regime and championed by Mr. Khatemi. Under Sharia law, virgin girls are not allowed to be executed, for their purity might open up the doors of heaven to them. To avoid this, virgin girls, such as Atefeh, who are sentenced to death, are raped before execution to ensure their proper place in hell.

All of which strongly suggests that it's not about men being placed over and above the weaker sex: it's about sheer bloody hatred.

Comments

[Alcuin]

The nine year old rule was implemented by Khomeini on the precedent of Mohammed's consummation of Aisha, though I thought it was only intended as the age of consent. That is one seriously dysfunctional society. As for the general disdain for women, the source is the horse's mouth itself.
http://www.homa.org/Details.asp?ContentID=2137352824&TOCID=2083225347

"Evil omen is in the women, house and the horse." - Mohammed

"I was standing at the edge of the fire (hell) and the majority of the people going in were women." - Mohammed

[DaninVan]

Alcuin; "I was standing at the edge of the fire (hell) and the majority of the people going in were women." - Mohammed

Pushed by men(?)...

This item from Egypt...http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/World/STIStory_191498.html
The last line would suggest a major legal (not to mention moral) problem for Doctors if they try and comply with the religious ruling.
I'd suggest gelding the rapist as well, might actually reduce the instances of rape.

[DaninVan]

My above comment got me thinking; here's an excerpt from an article on "gelding":

" Gelding is often used as a means to modify a horse's behavior. Vocalization, fractious behavior and sexual interest in mares are frequently the undesirable characteristics noted in the yearling and two-year-old stallion. Although sexual interest is desirable in a stud, sexual aggressiveness is inappropriate and dangerous in a performance animal. The urge to copulate is just one part of the breeding ritual; related breeding behaviors include forms of whinnying, squealing, pushing, rearing, striking, and biting - all socially acceptable behaviors among horses but not between people and horses. A small percentage of young male horses exhibit sexual frustration or self-mutilation tendencies. If such a horse is not intended for breeding, it is best to geld him before habits get established. "

I'm just sayin'...

[Snafu]

How can a woman found guilty of adultery be a virgin!?!

[Mick H]

That's a very good question, Snafu.

[Recusant]

It was for an affair with a 51 year old man. The whole thing is a disgrace and an abomination and about as far from justice as can be imagined.