Execution of a Teenage Girl (2006) LEGENDA PT

Execution of a Teenage Girl (2006) - In 2004, 16 year old Atefeh Sahaaleh was executed in Iran for adultery and "crimes against chastity" after she confessed, under torture, to being raped repeatedly by a 51 year old man.

Not long after dawn on August 15, 2004 a teenage girl was dragged through a town square in the Iranian provincial city of Neka, past a crowd of people to the spot where a mobile crane had been converted into a makeshift gallows. Atefah Sahaaleh was 16 years old. She was hanged that morning for crimes against chastity.

Her sin, according to Iran’s moral police, was that she was involved in a sexual relationship. For this she was convicted with her death sentence approved by an appeal court in Tehran.Those who knew Atefah Sahaaleh decribe her as a normal if needy teenager. Her mother had died in a car crash when she was young, after which her father descended into drug addiction. She lived with, cooked and cleaned for grandparents who otherwise ignored her. A psychologist’s report says she was desperately looking for love.

She had previous convictions for crimes against chastity – behaviour like being alone in a car with a boy. For these she had received a hundred lashes. At the age of thirteen a relationship began with a much older taxi driver. He may have been a predator working on a young woman without a reputation she could defend. He may have offered affection. Certainly in Australia a 50-year-old man having sex with a young teenager would be guilty of statutory rape. Under Sharia law in Iran where the age of consent for girls is nine years old the woman is assumed to be the temptress.

In Atefah Sahaaleh’s case the judge took a personal dislike against her. Authorities manipulated the records to make it look like she was 22 years old – old enough under the Iranian system to execute.

This disturbing story is told in a documentary made for the BBC by Wild Pictures. It was produced covertly by examining documents then travelling secretly to Neka and interviewing the girl’s father, neighbours, friends and others. Several sequences and interviews have had to be re-enacted because Iranian authorities do not welcome inquiry into such cases. Nevertheless it is not a solitary example. Iran comes second only to China in its record for executing its citizens. It is a country where capital offences extend not only to serious crimes of violence or crimes against the state, but to crimes against chastity.

“Execution of a Teenage Girl” – on Four Corners, 8.30 pm Monday 7 August, ABC TV.

This program will be repeated about 11 pm Wednesday 9 August; also on ABC2 digital channel at 7 pm and 9.30 pm Wednesday.

“Execution of a teenage girl” BBC Online A television documentary team has pieced together details surrounding the case of a 16-year-old girl, executed two years ago in Iran. ‘ Read more

“Death and the maiden in Iran” Daily Telegraph An article by Alasdair Palmer, about the date of Atefah Sahaaleh.

“Iran diary: Death of a teenager” Guardian Unlimited BBC producer Monica Garnsey travelled undercover to Iran to investigate the execution of Atefah Sahaaleh. Read an account of her journey .