- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
Goli Kouhkan was a child bride at 12 and now faces execution.
More info here:
If you want to contribute to saving Goli’s life, you can do that here:
https://www.mycause.com.au/page/385632/urgent-call-for-saving-goli-kouhkans-life
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About the donation drive: it seems legit and I encourage people to help her.
I checked the background of the Qasim Child Foundation and they’re a registered charity in Australia since 2020. Here’s one of their letters from 2022 to the Australian parliament, asking Australia to use its influence on Iran. The director of the foundation, Mehdi Ghatei, is a real person living in Australia and originating from Iran.
What I think about the case: if a person has been “married off” as a child, not because of her wishes, indeed against her informed consent, has tried returning to her parents only to be sent away to an abusive husband, and has subsequently got into a fight with her husband after he harmed her and their child - a court should not convict of murder, but at most “provoked homicide” (if self defense is ruled out).
Extracting confessions without a lawyer present, getting signatures from a person who cannot read (what society fails to teach reading and writing?) - all of this is complete bollocks too, of course. But in the state of Iran, so many things are systematically borked that one loses count. :(
P.S.
Blood money might be a matter of negotiation. The family of her husband might even reconsider if offered a tangible large sum short of their demands instead of mere blood, which benefits nobody.
Thank you for doing this detailed research, really appreciated!
No problem, it was easy. :)
P.S.
I notice that some people (perhaps special rapporteur Mai Sato) have explained her situation to the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights, and the UN has published a call for Iran to intervene in her case.
Iran must halt execution of Goli Kouhkan domestic violence survivor: UN experts
I hope the word of the OHCHR suffices - that Iranian officials take note and prevent her execution.
If I were an Iranian official, no matter how conservative or stuck in old ways, I would remember what happened after Mahsa Amini / Jina Amini was killed, and would carefully steer away from repeating any similar chain of events.
On the day her husband was killed, Kouhkan found him beating her son, then aged five. She called a cousin for help. When he arrived a fight broke out which resulted in the death of her husband.
Man slaughter at worst. No jury in a civilized country would condemn but Based on all the example court cases in the article this country hates women and is just looking for any excuse to murder them even if you didn’t do it.
jury
civilised country
most of the civilised world do not use juries
you got me real curious and I found this.
Looks like former UK colonies use it but others not so much
Thanks for not getting mad at my less than polite comment. :*
for the killing of her abusive husband
A pretty big part to miss
I’m not saying that makes the situation just, just that it comes a long way in explaining the why
Yeah, she was a victim of state and family-sanctionned pedophilia, and she was trying to protect her son. In a sane country she would have been acquitted or given a slap on the wrist.
How exactly am I disagreeing with that?
Do you usually see people replying to your comments with “yeah” plus further information as disagreement?
I am saying it does. Sounded like self-defense.
Yeah, great. Then include that
It seems like a pretty reasonable interpretation to me (but also uncertain from the information in the article), just an unreasonable omission of detail from the source
Their first word was literally “Yeah”.
Removed by mod
Iran is a primitive society based on superstition and where 1500 year old barbaric laws are upheld.
The same goes for all other countries that use Sharia law or other laws based on superstition or tradition.*a primitive regime.
The society is much more complex than this.
And yet….
Doesn’t change the fact that the society has laws build on ancient superstition without reason.
A society build on primitives rules that follow such rules is primitive per definition.
Because the practice of such primitive laws guide all activity in a society.What about death penalty to the victim is not primitive and barbaric?
How is a society that execute primitive barbaric laws not primitive?
Is it because they can make nice cookies?How does this complexity you mention change that it is a primitive society?
Is it because it is not PC to call a culture primitive? Because then I’ve got news for you, some cultures are very obviously more primitive than others.Is it because it is not PC to call a culture primitive?
If you know its history and are absolutely sure that your evaluation is correct. But I have the feeling that you haven’t checked Iranian history - because historians don’t tend to put Iran in the same sentence with that.
So, I would add some notes. Islamic extremism has not been in power “for 1500 years” in Iran - it has been in power since 1979. Iran has political problems. And let me tell you, political problems can quickly bring down a society that might otherwise have its problems under control.
Did folks call Germany “primitive” when Hitler rose to power? Nope, they used other terms. Do we call Russia “primitive” because of Putin? Will we start calling the US “primitive” if Trump manages to become a dictator? Do we call China “primitive” because they have a one-party dictatorship? Nope, we don’t.
They’re advanced societies facing difficult problems of various sorts. They are also extremely unequal societies - some people in the capital have modern life, but some in the periphery don’t even have jack s**t.
Iran could be spending its time selling satellite launches if it wanted, but has an Islamist theocracy in power. Any candidate can be disqualified in the elections if the grand ayatollah doesn’t like them. Iran does various extremely shortsighted and I would really say… extremely stupid things. Like fighting proxy wars with Israel and then fighting real wars with Israel, depending on Russia for ammunition and then supplying Russia with ammunition against Ukraine…
…but “stupid” and “primitive” are not synonyms.
After islamic extremists came to power in the 1979 revolution, they broke down Iranian society in many directions. Executions were widespread, terror was used to subdue opposition, women’s rights were trampled on, many things happened. Thing went wrong, got entrenched in the state of being wrong, and remain wrong to this day. :(
The regime before the islamists was the Shah (king). He had already been ousted and there had been parliamentary democracy in Iran, but the shah came back to power with UK and US support. He also terrorized the population through his secret police. The shah was hated and propped up by foreign powers - a ripe fruit for Islamists to pick and eat.
Before the shah, Iran had a problem with left-leaning populism and government-parliament relations, but I think this was their smallest problem. The last democratically elected PM (Mosadegh) was somewhat populist and wanted to nationalize the oil industries (wanted to hurt Western business interests), which would have been OK, but he also had problems with the Parliament, which was definitely not OK. With some Western assistance, he was couped out of power, which, in my books, spent Iran spiraling out of control.
That’s a brief summary of what’s been going on in the center of society, in the Persian speaking regions (I apologize for gross simplification, but I can’t summarize Iranian history into a single post, they have so much of it and it’s not simple - and not primitive).
In border regions, however, we observe different processes. Persians (Iran’s majority population) have easier access to what little justice their system can ensure, while minorities (the Azeri, Kurds, Arabs and among smaller groups, the Baloch) are marginalized and cannot get just treatment.
Iran is a former empire and has a considerable number of people who’ve been conquered at some time. Some of them want independence (ask a Kurd in private and you’ll hear). Society is neglecting them. If there was peace, and not islamic theocracy but democracy like in the 1950-ties, minority groups would likely have better living conditions. But as things are… sigh. Minority groups get the highest levels of poverty and oppression.
I never claimed Iran was a primitive society before 1979 under the Shah. My claim is that they are primitive NOW, in part because they use Sharia law. They did NOT use Sharia law under the Shah!
But yes I am also very well aware that the Shah was instated by what was practically a coup against a democratically elected government.Germany was absolutely also primitive during WW2, because it devolved to violence and extermination of minorities.
Russia is a bit more complicated, but very definitely a society that has not evolved as well as it could have.I don’t really care that “they” used other terms, first it’s a false equivalence, and why should I be bound by false standards?
“stupid” and “primitive” are not synonyms.
No they are not, why would you think I used it as such? Iranian society is both stupid and primitive, both mostly a result of social religious insanity.
After islamic extremists came to power in the 1979 revolution
I agree, Iran was a better society in some ways before the revolution, and if USA hadn’t messed up their democracy, Iran would likely have been a way better society today.
they broke down Iranian society in many directions. Executions were widespread, terror was used to subdue opposition, women’s rights were trampled on,
You are basically making my point here. Mind you this was by the wishes of the population. Much to the frustration of Iranians that had to flee, that had hoped for a socialist revolution. I have actually known Iranian people here in Denmark, and they are very good people, BUT!!! They are not Muslims!!! Iran today is an Islamic country, and the population is overwhelmingly Muslim, and they overwhelmingly condoned what the new regime under the Ayatollah was doing. Including all of your above points.
Iran is a former empire
What they used to be is completely irrelevant to what they are today, also being an empire does not exclude being primitive. Russia today is an empire, and they are primitive compared to what they could have been, without a super corrupt dictator that has undermined Russian society for 30 years.
Despite I’m disagreeing with you, I have upvoted your post, in part because of the effort, but also because many of your points are correct, the only problem is, they don’t logically lead to the conclusion you want to arrive at.
That’s a lot of words for “shithole”
Iran is a primitive society based on superstition and where 1500 year old barbaric laws
Let me choose the most modern laws where you get death sentence by a white cop because you are black. Or the laws that looks at a genocide and then decide to send more weapon to the one who is committing the genocide killing at least 70k people mostly women and children that you pretend to care about.
You can disagree with laws, but claiming they are “primitive” and “barbaric laws” is a stupid, racist, and ignorant statement.
Nah, you had a point until your last statement. What is barbarism if not the unjustified killing of a person based on their skin color? The only thing the original comment was missing is that we still hard that same primitve barbaric system, weve just restricted the worst of it to the lower class and minorities.
USA is absolutely an extremely violent and racist country, and both those aspects are obviously primitive. How else would you judge that?
USA also isn’t governed by “modern” laws, if you want to see modern laws in practice look at the Scandinavian countries.Notice that I also write that other countries with Sharia law are primitive, the same goes for laws based on other religions like Christianity, and obviously the same also goes for practices based on racism.
USA is widely considered primitive in many ways in Europe.
You can disagree with laws, but claiming they are “primitive” and “barbaric laws” is a stupid, racist, and ignorant statement.
You are so so wrong, for instance the death penalty is for sure a primitive law that modern political and humanist sciences have clearly abolished because it’s immoral, and is against human rights, and for those reasons also illegal in EU.
USA is also in many ways a primitive society, not entirely unlike Iran. Extreme regulation against abortion that can cause the death of pregnant women, a dysfunctional democracy, extreme violence, harassment of minorities and homeless, and a shorter life expectancy than other western democracies, even democracies that are less than half as wealthy as USA. USA also has the bigger portion of its population in prison by far compared to any other country in the world.
All signs of a society that is morally and mentally is caught in the past, and has refrained from introducing improvements that are common in other countries that USA used to be ahead of.
