An Iranian man who was ordered to be blinded for carrying out an acid attack on a woman has been pardoned by his victim, state television has said.
Ameneh Bahrami had demanded qisas, a rarely used retributive justice under Sharia law, but the report said she had forgone that right at the last minute.
(via BBC News)
I blogged about this case some time ago. I’m still conflicted about how I feel about the initial decision that allowed Bahrami retributive justice for her victimization. One thing is for certain: I have endless respect for Bahrami. She said of her decision:
“I struggled for seven years with this verdict to prove to people that the person who hurls acid should be punished through ‘qisas’, but today I pardoned him because it was my right.
“I did it for my country, since all other countries were looking to see what we would do.”