An Eye For Half An Eye- Inequality For Women Under The Iranian Islamic Penal Codes

There is no equality for women in Islamic states, as much as people want to proclaim there is; particularly under the penal code. A woman is worth half that of a man.

Take 30-year-old Ameneh Bahrami who was viciously attacked with acid by a stalker 5 years her junior. She met Majid Movahedi in a university class. Besotted by her, for 2 years he continuously harassed and threatened her, claiming he would kill her if she didn't marry him. Then in November, 2004 his threats became a reality when he threw acid on her face, blinding and scarring her face and body. Movahedi eventually confessed, was convicted and has been jailed since 2005. Victims of attacks, such as Bahrami's, will often opt for "blood money", or essentially

a fine in lieu of harsh punishment

However, under Shariah law, Bahrami chose qesas instead- “a punishment where the criminal’s sentence must be equivalent to their crime”, or in western terms “an eye for an eye”. In this case, literally, she wants an eye for an eye- she wants Movahedi to have acid placed in both eyes, but because she is a woman, her two eyes are worth only one of his. Bahrami, who now lives in Spain where she went for treatment, told Cadena SER radio if she wants both eyes blinded, she will have to pay $25,110 for the other one.

She said her choice was not to seek revenge, but to prevent it from happening to someone else.

"I am not doing this out of revenge, but rather so that the suffering I went through is not repeated."

I don't condone this form of justice, but I can understand why she would choose this route, when the sentence for Movahedi would have been simply a fine. He would have walked a free man, minus some money, whereas she will be disfigured for life.

The differences in punishments for women versus men under Islamic Penal code are horrendous:

Article 209 states that if a man deliberately murders a Muslim woman then before he is receives qesas punishment the family of the woman have to pay the murderer half her blood money (diyeh – see below). The succeeding article extends the same double standard to a non-Muslim man murdering a non-Muslim women, whether or not they share the same religion. Thus a woman’s life is valued as half that of the man, and the punishment of a man murdering a woman is not the same as a woman’s unless the family of the murdered woman pays the murderer half his blood-money. He gets a present for the crime he has committed!

Book four of the Islamic Penal Codes is devoted to diyeh (fines and blood money). This too is heavily tainted with the same sexual apartheid. The 2:1 male:female relationship permeates all calculations of blood money. Indeed, this inequality shows itself in all but one article of this section [2]. At times the worth of women is even less than half.

Article 457 fixes the blood-money for the loss of both eyes as equivalent to the loss of life. An addendum to this article adds there is no difference between a normal, a squinted eye or a night-blind eye. Thus the value of a woman whatever her knowledge, education, expertise, credit, family and social responsibility is the same as a half-blind or squinted eye of a man.

This woman, right or wrong, will get her pound of flesh, or should I say- her half pound of flesh.