Women who demonstrate against the government in Iran are risking more than we can imagine. Demonstrators against the regime in Iran are faced with the death penalty. this includes demonstrators who are well under eighteen years of age. But Iran makes justice run through the twisted labyrinth of Shaaria law as it is interpreted by Iran's corrupt theocracy.
How twisted is it? Consider this. according to the Jerusalem Post, girls who are virgins may not be executed, no matter what their crimes. So how do you execute a girl who is a virgin? Very simple. You have a prison guard marry her. When he consummates his "marriage" to the condemned, then she can be executed the following morning. The Jerusalem Post reports a conversation with a member of the Basij militia as follows.
"When he was 16, "my mother took me to a Basiji station and begged them to take me under their wing because I had no one and nothing foreseeable in my future. My father was martyred during the war in Iraq and she did not want me to get hooked on drugs and become a street thug. I had no choice," he said.
He said he had been a highly regarded member of the force, and had so "impressed my superiors" that, at 18, "I was given the 'honor' to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death."
In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by her "husband."
"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said.
Why the regret, if the marriages were "legal?"
"Because," he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.
"I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he said. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her."
The individual who spoke with the reporter was himself later arrested. What was his crime? Knowing what was in store for a female detainee, he set her free, rather than subjecting her to a legalised rape and execution. Apparently there is a decency among common folk that seems to elude their spiritual leaders. Even the "professional husband" employed by the Ahmadinejad regime suffered pangs of conscience.
The article in the Jerusalem Post also describes Basij members abusing their authority to go on "wilding "sprees which include robbery, violence and sexual abuse. The populace has no recourse against the goon squads that have been invested with official powers.
The image of Islam is disgraced by the latest revelations to come from Iran. The supposed 'theocracy" in Iran is nothing but a pack of gangsters that should be denounced and fought for their violence and their fatuous fatwas. The factions of the clergy in Iran should speak out against the atrocities committed in the name of Islam. What started out as a revolt against a stolen election will become a revolt against corrupt theocracy. Silence is complicity
This is the new Iran, supposedly voted for overwhelmingly by its electorate. Even though there is little our government can do directly, where is our voice? Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State who has spoken so loudly for women's rights is silent. Are Iranian women children of a lesser god? It is unfortunate that Ms. Clinton recently broke her wrist in a fall. Did she lose her voice as well?
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