WUNRN
15 November 2007
United Nations General Assembly Committee Backs Global
Moratorium Against Death Penalty
_______________________________________________________________________
Iranian child victim of prostitution
By
Julia Rooke |
Sold into
prostitution aged nine, condemned by an Iranian judge to hang at 18, Leila was
saved by a group of human rights activists.
"I was nine years old when my
mother started selling me. I did not understand what was happening."
Leila was illiterate but she is now
learning to read
Today
Leila is a young woman of 22. For the past two years she has been cared for by
a private home for destitute young women in Tehran, Omid E Mehr, which means
Hope.
"My
mother would say: 'Let's go out to buy things, like chocolates'. She would
actually trick me. I was a tiny girl. She just took me to places."
Leila
still finds it difficult to talk about the past. But we know that the
"places" she speaks of are where she was sold for sex and raped.
Leila
became the main source of income for a family of five.
The
lawyer who eventually saved Leila's life, Shadi Sadr, is a controversial figure
in Iran. Although she was imprisoned earlier this year for taking part in human
rights demonstrations, she is widely respected and frequently quoted in the
press.
A
girl is considered one of the first commodities or properties that can be
traded or sold in the eyes of a parent who is poor in Iran |
Ms Sadr says
Leila's story is not unique.
"A girl
is considered one of the first commodities or properties that can be traded or
sold in the eyes of a parent who is poor in Iran," she says.
Ms Sadr says
that, in practice in Iran, under the Islamic penal code a father has enormous
power over his own children.
"If a
father decides to kill his own child he will not be sentenced to death, he will
only be sent to prison for a couple of years."
Temporary
wife
Leila lived
in Arak, a small town four hours drive south of Tehran - notorious for criminal
behaviour and illegal drugs. Most of Leila's earnings went on illegal narcotics
for her family.
According to
the United Nations three quarters of the world's opium seizures take place in
Iran and the authorities acknowledge addiction is a serious problem.
But there
are no such statistics on prostitution. The Director of the Omid E Mehr centre
in Tehran says it is a growing problem.
"I have
entered many homes in the south of Tehran where young girls had to go out and
sell their bodies to provide for their father's drug habits," says Eshrat
Gholipour.
I have also
seen several cases of families chaining their own daughter to the homes to stop
them from running away."
I
am going to tell you something but please do not be upset. You are going to
be hanged |
Leila's
husband began selling her for sex to as many as 15 men each night. Two months
into the marriage, police raided the house and arrested everyone.
The husband
was sentenced to five years in jail for providing a house for illegal sex.
During the
course of the criminal investigation, Leila's brothers had confessed to raping
her. They were flogged. For this Leila was accused of incest. A crime
punishable by death.
Leila was in
a women's prison when she heard about her own sentence from the warder: "I
am going to tell you something but please do not be upset. You are going to be
hanged."
Ms Sadr says
the judicial system is deeply conservative and unfair.
"These
male judges have not had any training about sexual charges. They all have a
chauvinistic point of view and they see the woman as guilty," she says.
Leila's
brothers later retracted their confessions. Ms Sadr took Leila's case to appeal
and won.
Death
sentence
Earlier this
year Ms Sadr defended and won the case of 19-year-old Nazanine, sentenced to
death for killing a man who tried to rape her. Today she too is a free woman.
There
will be so many protests... from the human rights activists that the judges
are under pressure not to issue a death sentence" |
According to
Amnesty International, 177 people were executed in Iran last year, of these
four were women - this year the number is up to five. The real figures could be
higher as executions are not always reported.
But Ms Sadr
and other Iranian lawyers say that constant human-rights campaigning and
publicity is making Iran's judges more sensitive to public opinion. "There
will be so many protests or so much complaints from the human rights activists
that the judges are under pressure not to issue a death sentence," she says.
Tender
hope
Today Leila
lives in a small flat with a full-time carer paid for by Ms Sadr and the Omid E
Mehr day centre.
When Leila
arrived she was illiterate and needed to be taught the basics of life.
"She did not know
anything," says Marjaneh Halati, the founder of Omid E Mehr, "to the
point that she did not know that you wear a pad when you get a period."
Today Leila
is learning to read and earning money as a seamstress.
But Ms
Halati also knows that by helping girls like Leila - by boosting their
self-esteem and encouraging independence - the centre is treading a fine line.
"We
live in Iran and there are certain rules we have to abide by, but it does not
mean we cannot tell the girls that they are no different to men. They are
individuals," she says.
Today Leila
is free and attitudes may slowly be changing. Iran passed its first child
protection laws five years ago.
This spring
a new bill drafted by human rights lawyers, is expected to go before Parliament
to make prosecutions in child abuse cases easier.
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