Iran Postpones Court-Ordered Blinding

Acid attacker sentenced to have acid dropped in eyes
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 14, 2011 5:50 AM CDT
Iran Postpones Court-Ordered Blinding
Ameneh Bahrami was blinded in both eyes when a spurned suitor splashed acid in her face.   (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Iran has postponed a literal eye-for-an-eye punishment it was due to carry out today. A court had ordered a man who threw a bucket of acid in the face of a woman who refused to marry him to have acid dropped in both eyes. Human rights groups including Amnesty International have urged Iran to call off the punishment, calling it "a cruel and inhuman punishment amounting to torture." The victim, who was left disfigured and blind in both eyes by the attack, refused to pardon her attacker.

The woman, who now lives in Spain, traveled to Iran expecting the sentence to be carried out today, saying she was willing to do the blinding herself if necessary. "I was very happy that this was going to end today," she told Al Jazeera. "And yes, I was going to carry out the punishment myself, but I was afraid that I would get acid on my hands, so a doctor is going to do it. It's been 6 years that I've been waiting for this day." The punishment—five drops of sulfuric acid in each eye—has been moved to an unknown date. (More Amenah Bahrami stories.)

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