Woman blinded by acid wants same fate for attacker

s.b.f —

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Ameneh Bahrami is certain that one day she'll meet someone, fall in love and get married. But when her wedding day comes, her husband won't see her eyes, and she won't see her husband. Bahrami is blind, the victim of an acid attack by a spurned suitor.

If she gets her way, her attacker will suffer the same fate. The 31-year-old Iranian is demanding the ancient punishment of "an eye for an eye," and, in accordance with Islamic law, she wants to blind Majid Movahedi, the man who blinded her.

"I don't want to blind him for revenge," Bahrami said in her parents' Tehran apartment. "I'm doing this to prevent it from happening to someone else."

Bahrami says she first crossed paths with Movahedi in 2002, when they attended the same university.

She was a 24-year-old electronics student. He was 19. She never noticed him until they shared a class. He sat next to her one day and brushed up against her. Bahrami says she knew it wasn't an accident.

"I moved away from him," she said, "but he brushed up against me again."

When Bahrami stood up in class and screamed for him to stop, Movahedi just looked at her in stunned silence. He wouldn't stay silent for long.

Bahrami said that over the next two years, Movahedi kept harassing her and making threats, even as he asked her to marry him. "He told me he would kill me. He said, 'You have to say yes.' "

On a November afternoon in 2004, Movahedi's threats turned to violence.

That day at 4:30 p.m., Bahrami left the medical engineering company where she worked. As she walked to the bus stop, she remembers sensing someone behind her.

She turned around and was startled to see Movahedi. A moment later came the agonizing pain. Movahedi had thrown something over her. What felt like fire on her face was acid searing through her skin.

"I was just yelling, 'I'm burning! I'm burning! For God's sake, somebody help me!' "

The acid seeped into Bahrami's eyes and streamed down her face and into her mouth. When she covered her face with her hands, streaks of acid ran down her fingers and onto her forearms.

Two weeks after the attack, Movahedi turned himself in to police and confessed in court. He was convicted in 2005 and has been behind bars all along.

Bahrami's lawyer, Ali Sarrafi, said Movahedi had never shown any remorse. "He says he did it because he loved her," Sarrafi said.

Attack victims in Iran usually accept "blood money": a fine in lieu of harsh punishment. With no insurance and mounting medical bills, Bahrami could've used the cash, but she said no.

"I told the judge I want an eye for an eye," Bahrami said. "People like him should be made to feel my suffering."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/19/acid.attack.victim/index.html…

Forum

Dawud — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 - 21:42

[quote=s.b.f][quote=Dawud]
That's the philospohy of the hudood.
[/quote]

Whats the philosophy of the hudood all about?[/quote]

[quote=Dawud]Not to hurt the individual but to make sure the collective don't take the crime lightly.[/quote]

[quote=Hajjar]assalamu alaikum,

Well i agree with You and Dawud. Although I came across highly charged i had good reason, I can understand what she went through prior to the acid incident. There is nothing wrong with revenge.[/quote]

Well that back-fired! I was trying to be all nochalant like 'You' and get a decent answer out of Wednesday but she wasn't taking the bait so I'll have to post something myself.

[quote=Ya'qub]
Allah's (swt) Mercy is far greater than His Wrath and, as Muslims we should be trying to 'know' Allah (swt). Al-Ghazli asks what better way is there to know someone than trying to behave like them?[/quote]
SubhanAllah! You've come along way Ya'qub...and as a convert I sort of expected that would happen eventually. Carry on travelling, as Sheryl Crow points out, the road may be long and winding but you "get a little bit closer."

You — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 - 21:26

[quote=wednesday][quote=YasminCullen]An eye for an eye. Wow omg i feel soo sorry for her i cant imagine being blind! and the guy is so ugh!!! seriously i just feel like screaming! and definitely she should do that to him!! I would! An eye for an eye. [/quote]

What exactly are you gna get out of it all?[/quote]

The knowledge that the person has paid for what they did? the knowledge that people will know that doing something as such will get them serious punishment?

I read online (so it must be true) that the "eye for an eye" principle is one of replacement...

... So if someone did this act to you and as a punishment you could get your eyes "swapped" with those of the aggressor, would you?

Dawud — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 - 21:41

[quote=s.b.f]Imagine you were blind.
[/quote]
He doesn't have to because the plight of the woman who IS BLIND is enough for him to evoke the sensation. I'm not attacking you s.b.f in fact I'm glad you're so mercy-centered, we need more folk like you. However, I happen to feel that this guy committed a barbaric crime and punishment is required for redress.

He's in prison and one could argue that that is sufficient punishment. He could be forced to pay blood money which again could be argued to be sufficient punishment. However justice is based on the redress of hurt. And the person who was hurt was neither you nor me. It was the woman. If she says I want an "eye for an eye" then I feel that both me and you should support her on the principle that it is her right to ask it, and so long as she remains within the sacred constraints of the law it is her perogative to seek healing for her hurt.

About Revenge
I gave a link that defined revenge as "retaliation: action taken in return for an injury or offense." I was expecting people to say, "No that's the definition of justice. Revenge is something else"

Well for me revenge is something else. Something below the standard of loft morals. For just as Jealousy differs from admiration in that jealousy additionally requires an aspect of ill feeling towards its object, revenge differs from justice in that it also requires ill feeling towards its object.

Justice is redress for a wrong, that heals the hurt and acts within the constraints of the law. Revenge is also born from a desire to heal the hurt, however its primary goal is to fulfil its purpose through inflicting hurt upon the person who first caused you pain. Justice is understood to be synonymous with balance, it seeks only to fulfil itself up to the degree of the original wrong.

Note that with this definition of justice shows that its primary concern is with the physical damage caused and not so much the emotional damage. This demonstrates the superiority of benevolence over justice in that justice will only create a vista for your emotional hurt to be healed. The act of healing the heart must in the end come from the qualities of the heart. I.e. even after justice is done, personal benevolence is required to complete the work of justice.

Also note that we are human and sometimes its so hard to bear the pain that we "must have satisfaction (revenge)." This also applies to observers of justice, I was in a tigerish mood when I previously posted. My hippie levels have since returned to normal.

Imaani — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 - 16:38

I honestly don't know what I'd do in this situation. I'd like to think that knowing that he'd be locked up for life - inshallah would be enough. And then knowing that would prevent him from doing the same to anyone else would be good I think. If on the other hand the sentence was hardly nothing and he wasn't at all remorseful at the end of it... I don't know. It all seems very angry and bitter to me, which is a scary thing.

This lady should do what she feels like doing as long as it's within law. I think 'an eye for an eye' is a very good and effective deterrent though. But it takes guts I think.

Would I want his eyes, absolutely no.

And as for blood money, again no. Anything I spent the money on would just remind me of him. I don't understand how that would possibly help in anyway.

You — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 - 21:11

An eye for an eye - Iran court allows victim to blind culprit

It's the ultimate case of an eye for an eye - a judge has given an Iranian woman permission to pour acid into a man's eye after the spurned suitor blinded her by doing the same thing.

After 17 operations, Ameneh Bahrami is desperate for revenge and has been given the green light by a Tehran court.

“He will lie in front of me drugged. I will feel my way to his eyes and then drop 20 drops of acid in each eye,” Ameneh (30) explained.

“It has come so far,” she told a BILD reporter in Barcelona, where she now lives. “I will have retribution on April 15.”

The electrical engineer was attacked by Majid Emovahedi (25) because she had constantly turned down his marriage proposals.

His whole family had put pressure on her to wed him, but she was resolute: “No, I will never marry him.”

Majid waited for her as she left work in September 2004 and threw sulphuric acid over her head. She went blind immediately.

Ameneh Bahrami moved to Spain, where she has had 17 operations on her eyes and face.

Her desire for revenge has grown. She will return to Iran, wearing jeans and a t-shirt under her chador.

“My father and siblings won’t be there. They don’t want to see it.

"But my mother and friends will accompany me to make sure I don’t pour the acid on myself when I put it in his eyes.”...

Read more @ Bild.com

TPOS — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 - 22:28

i dont think i could ever do it, i understand how she must be feeling but i dont think i could do that to someone else after having it done to myself, but then again i havnt been put in that position and she really must want the revenge.

You — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 - 22:33

Have you seen the picture in the link I have? and if that is the case after SEVENTEEN corrective surgeries etc, it must have been horrendous to start off with.

As for being able to deliver such a thing, I doubt many people can.

s.b.f — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 - 22:58

[quote=Seraphim]But is it justice or revenge?

[/quote]

Can be both.

[quote=You]Islamically, she has a right to demand equal treatment [/quote]

In that case, this case could be a clear example/warning to people who consider carrying out acid attack on someone.

Are women the majority who seem to be the victims to acid attack?

You — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 - 16:10

But if she justifies it to herself that she is warning others that if they do the same crime, there will be grave consequences, maybe that will make her feel all warm and fuzzy?

I asked this question on Tribune once... just imagine she she decided not to take this approach, the person was sentenced to a long prison sentence, but ten years down the line was released, either due to end of sentence or "good behaviour", and then ended up attacking someone else, would she not feel guilty for not stopping him when she could have?

Besides, from the reports, the guy did not feel remorse was was toying with her even in he court hearings. Evil.

Ya'qub — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 - 19:03

[quote=You]I asked this question on Tribune once... just imagine she she decided not to take this approach, the person was sentenced to a long prison sentence, but ten years down the line was released, either due to end of sentence or "good behaviour", and then ended up attacking someone else, would she not feel guilty for not stopping him when she could have?[/quote]

Or what if he IS blinded and then, because of his anger at this, throws acid onto one of her children! Extreme, I know. But things CAN keep yo-yoing until the fight becomes less about the original offence/injustice and more about the fact of 'getting even'.