In Iran, Nazanin Fatehi was sentenced to death a year ago, on 3 January 2006. She admitted admitting having stabbed to death one of three men who tried to rape her and a 16-year-old relative. She was 17 at the time. Not only is it unjust to kill a woman for defending herself, but Iran is a signatory to the international legal rules that forbids it from executing minors (interestingly the US is not and it took the American Supreme Court to have to put a stop to the practice).

Her retrial is set for January 10, 2007:

In this new trial the Islamic Republic Court will either:

    a) spare the life of Nazanin and release her from prison or
    b) announce a prison sentence of x number of years or
    c) re-condemn Nazanin for execution or
    d) ask Nazanin to negotiate "Dieh" (Blood Money) with the family of the alleged rapist and have her released subject to her paying that amount.

There is a huge international campaign (with link to petition) to assure that proposition c does not occur.

One of the feminist issues arising in the case is that while Iran does recognize self-defense as a valid defense, the fact that the two girls were in a park by themselves ends up getting used against them.

Dymphna suggested that this case might be a good way for Rep. Ellison (or his wife) to bring international attention, and their media clout to bear on the issue of women's rights in Muslim countries. I agree to the extent that big timers need to get involved and use their media clout. By the way, as you can see, Dymphna's suggestion fell on deaf rightwing ears, so if you think it is a good idea, please follow her instructions. Ultimately, conservative blogosphere is not altogether interested in the Iranian human rights. When I launched the anti-stoning campaign, about 90 left blogs linked to it; and one conservative one. As such, when conservative bloggers do want to get involved, we should support them.

In any event, our resident Iran expert Lily Mazahery, has been talking to the lawyers on the case on the phone and will probably update us in the near future.