Responding to the horrific news that 24-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Zeinab Sekaanvand was executed early this morning in Urumieh central prison, West Azerbaijan province, Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said: "The execution of Zeinab Sekaanvand is a sickening demonstration of the Iranian authorities' disregard for the principles of juvenile justice and international human rights law. Zeinab was just 17 years old at the time of her arrest. Her execution is profoundly unjust and shows the Iranian authorities contempt for the right of children to life. The fact that her death sentence followed a grossly unfair trial makes her execution even more outrageous." Zeinab Sekaanvand said that, soon after she was married at 15, she sought help many times from the authorities about her violent husband and alleged that her brother-in-law had raped her repeatedly. Instead of investigating these allegations, however, the authorities consistently ignored her and failed to provide her with any support as a victim of domestic and sexual violence. After the murder of her husband, Zeinab Sekaanvand said she was interrogated under torture by male police officers without a lawyer present. During her final trial session, where she was allowed a lawyer for the first time, she retracted her earlier "confession" that she had murdered her husband, saying that she had been coerced to make it. Despite this, the judge refused to order a further investigation and instead sentenced her to death. Iran: Victim of domestic and sexual violence, arrested as a child, is executed after unfair trial | Amnesty International So let me get this straight. She was FORCED into marriage against her will. She was abused by her husband. She was raped multiple times by his brother, with her husband not seeming to care. She begged the authorities for help and they refused to do anything. She finally had enough and killed her "husband". Even though there wasn't any clear proof that she was the one who killed him, they tortured her into making a confession, and now they have finally executed her after keeping her in prison for 5 years. She was forced into marriage at age 15 and she was 17 when the man she had been married to was found dead. Question ladies: What would YOU have done if you had found yourself in that situation? see related older thread: The story of a woman from Iran "Yes, I did run," she says.
