Iranian daily Rouzegar reports that Amaneh Bahrami, a victim of acid throwing has said that for 2 million euros she will forego the sentence of “eyes for eyes” issued for her assailant.
She has added however that she knows that Majid Movahedi does not have that kind of money so she is certain that the sentence will be carried out.
In 2004, Majid Movahedi threw acid on Amaneh Bahrami’s face after she refused his marriage proposal.
After the attack, Amaneh Bahrami lost her sight in both eyes , and her attacker has been in jail since then.
Recently the court issued an order for Majid Movahedi to be blinded by acid. The sentence is to be carried out on Saturday May 14 at noon at the court hospital in the presence of a group of medical specialists.
This is the first time such a sentence is to be carried out in Iran.
In response to whether she feels any sorrow knowing that an individual will be blinded, Bahrami told Rouzegar: “I have been waiting for this sentence to be carried out for years; it is my ultimate wish for Majid to be blinded.”
She added that her brother is the only member of her family who is opposed to the sentence.
Bahrami said that Majid Movahedi and his family have made no effort to apologize to her in the past seven years.
She added that at the beginning the judges told her that the sentence of blinding Movahedi with acid was “too cruel” and she was unlikely to get such a ruling from the court. She went on to say that the sentence was finally issued through her own persistence.
Amaneh Bahrami has also been quoted by Jam-e Jam daily as saying that she has pushed for the sentence not for revenge but in order to make sure no one else ever inflicts someone with such pain.
Human rights activists have been actively opposing this sentence and many maintain that such sentences re-enact the violence of the crime and rather than discourage violence make it common and acceptable.
