Is a beauty pageant winner. Oh, sweet irony.
After two grueling years in prison, Iranian teen Nazanin Fatehi was released today and spared from her original death sentence following an international campaign spearheaded by former Miss World Canada Nazanin Afshin-Jam.
Emotions ran high at the entrance gate of Evin prison, where 19-year-old Nazanin Fatehi was greeted by supporters and reunited with her family. Nazanin had a very emotional reunion with her family members. She could not believe that this day had arrived. She cried in her mother’s arms and embraced her siblings and father.
[…]
Fatehi was initially sentenced to death for murder by a court in Iran after she stabbed, in self-defense, one of three men who attempted to rape her and her 15-year-old niece in a park in Karaj, a suburb of Tehran, in March 2005. She was 17 at the time. On June 1, 2006, following extensive international pressure and media coverage, Iranian Head of Judiciary Ayatollah Shahroudi announced a stay of execution and a new trial. During the new trial on January 10, 2007, the five judges presiding over the case found inconsistencies with the testimonies of the male witnesses and unanimously overturned the charge of premeditated murder.
Although the court recognized that Fatehi acted in self defense, it ruled that excessive force was used. Therefore, the court asked Fatehi to pay “diyeh” (blood money) to compensate the family of the deceased — a judgment that her lawyers, Shadi Sadr and Mr. Mostafaei, vehemently oppose and will appeal.
And recognition is owed to MP Belinda Stronach as well, for helping with a “generous” donation towards the $43,000 US bail fund.
“…excessive force was used”
Where’d I hear that before?
Kate
That’s honest and honorable. Good on ya Belinda.
Syncro
Yep, good on Belinda for coming up with the cash and good on Kate for putting it up where we could see it.
Thanks,
Pat
Got to agree on Belinda, I was unaware, thanks for letting us know.
But the major credit goes to Ms Nazanin Afshin-Jam. Perhaps an Order of Canada should be put in place. That kind of action is worth recognizing, as an example of courage and something in the tradition of defending “Canadian Values”.
BTW, after Toronto has the second or third largest Iranian community in North America and Vancouver isnt too far behind. Most of these people fled the revolution so there is little love for the mullahs in the community.
“Got to agree on Belinda, I was unaware, thanks for letting us know.” Well thats because you don’t read my blog where I pointed this out last year. And along with being a beauty pagent winner Nazzin Afshin-Jam is also a singer.
So where were all our leftie activist feminists on this issue??
Linda McQuad ? or Naomi Klein.?
Has she met David Miller? Maybe now, since she’s obviously so much more than runway meat, Maybe David could find the time in his busy schedule to meet her. Nah, the optics wouldn’t be good. Capable and good looking, standing next to incapable and pretty. He’d come out second best…
I’m a strong believer in giving credit where credit is due. So, good on Belinda Stronach for her “generous donation” of $43000 for Nazanin Fatehi’s bail. It’s a travesty of the Iranian “justice system” (sic and sick) that she was jailed at all. (I wonder where the would-be rapists are? No doubt sleeping in their own beds–or forcibly in someone elses…not in jail…)
I would like to make the point, however, that $43000 for Ms. Stronach is hardly a withdrawal at the bank that is going to “pinch” her accumulated wealth in any way, and that there are countless church-going and other folks who give to charity, week in week out, from their modest incomes who are never praised or given honourable mention for their equally generous donations.
Their donations–and their action on the streets on any given night–aid the homeless here and abroad, AIDS orphans around the globe, Christians being sold into slavery in the Sudan and other areas, victims of natural disasters, and the list goes on and on.
I don’t want in any way to denigrate Ms. Stronach’s generosity: She could have decided to give nothing to this cause.
But let’s get things in perspective.
The biblical “widow’s mite,” where you give from the little you have rather than from a bulging bank account is, in fact, more heroic that the thousand$ and million$ from the Bonos and Belindas of this world.
I’m a strong believer in giving credit where credit is due. So, good on Belinda Stronach for her “generous donation” of $43000 for Nazanin Fatehi’s bail. It’s a travesty of the Iranian “justice system” (sic and sick) that she was jailed at all. (I wonder where the would-be rapists are? No doubt sleeping in their own beds–or forcibly in someone elses…not in jail…)
I would like to make the point, however, that $43000 for Ms. Stronach is hardly a withdrawal at the bank that is going to “pinch” her accumulated wealth in any way, and that there are countless church-going and other folks who give to charity, week in week out, from their modest incomes who are never praised or given honourable mention for their equally generous donations.
Their donations–and their action on the streets on any given night–aid the homeless here and abroad, AIDS orphans around the globe, Christians being sold into slavery in the Sudan and other areas, victims of natural disasters, and the list goes on and on.
I don’t want in any way to denigrate Ms. Stronach’s generosity: She could have decided to give nothing to this cause.
But let’s get things in perspective.
The biblical “widow’s mite,” where you give from the little you have rather than from a bulging bank account is, in fact, more heroic that the thousand$ and million$ from the Bonos and Belindas of this world.
Thank you Belinda for your help in this matter.