According to Amnesty International, Iran has, as of 2012, placed a limit of 18 as the minimum age at which the death penalty can be applied to its "criminals". You may wonder what the age was before? Apparently it could be 15 for boys and, get this (!!!!) 9 !!!! for girls. A product of some pre-medieval interpretation of the Koran (a real book of goodies, right?).
I saw a list a few years ago somewhere on the web of the girls on Death Row at the time in Iran. One was 13! Sorry I cannot find that list any more so that will have to go unsubstantiated.
I used to teach kids of that age. Some 13-year-olds can be quite difficult. There is no reason, as angry as I might get with them at times, why I would ever have wanted to kill any of them though! That girl is misbehaving in my class, right get the noose ready? I don't think so!
And why execute these kids? 13-year-old serial killers? 15-year-old drug racketeers? The best-known case of a hanging of an adolescent in Iran in recent years was that of Atefeh Sahaaleh. She was 16, and hanged publicly from a crane in the town of Neka in 2004.
And the offence? Murder? No. Drug based offences? No.
BREAKING THE CHASTITY LAWS!
It is too long and complicated for me to go into full detail, so checking out the story yourself is advised, but she had had an affair with a 51-year-old married man (a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard). To be said that this was a local decision and not approved in Teheran, but that it could even get that far and for such an offence says far too much about the way legal procedures are carried out in that country.
If you had the same régime established in the UK, if the latest stats are anything to go by, 1 out of every 3 or 4 16-year-old girls would be hanged in public! Stick up a gallows in Albert Square, or maybe on Chorlton Green as the regulars are coming out at closing time (after a couple of glasses of lemonade - no alcohol, of course!), and string up the latest offenders to be called out by the local populace and show that justice is being done?
UGH!
And do not think that Iran has been alone in the Islamic world in the execution of minors. In 2009 two 17-year-old boys were beheaded in Saudi Arabia. Juvenile delinquents they may well have been, and long prison sentences justified. And that, my friends, should have been the story. Saudi has also moved its death penalty forward in line with the age restriction imposed in Iran. The question remains why it took so long to get even this far.
Postscript (December 27th, 2021). I noted a few months ago a comment that a large number of people in the UK want hanging brought back and for that reason more than any other voted for Brexit as the EU is totally opposed to the death penalty). One comment from a correspondent in the local newspaper in my home town also indicated that he wanted Shamima Begum (one of the silly girls who ran away to join ISIS/ISIL/IS and found out how much of a paradise it wasn't, had three babies die due to malnourishment and is now stuck in a pretty desperate prison camp run by the Kurds) brought back to the UK and hanged. As she was 15 when she committed the offence of joining a terrorist organisation, essentially this involves reintroducing the death penalty for minors! Well 200 years ago they used to hang 13-year-old kids for stealing, so there is a precedent, I suppose.
Meanwhile the clown (who would be better off working in a circus than running a country) who is now the British PM is talking about removing the British commitment to international Human Rights treaties and replacing it with something which reflects "Britishness" - whatever nonsense that involves. Interesting the company it wants to keep. Take note of the countries around the world who have (or want to introduce) their own definition of Human Rights. Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, the newly established Taliban regime in Afghanistan ..... Great company to keep, eh?
And as for "Britishness" - apart from the accident of being born in the same approximate geographical area (a fact over which I had absolutely no say or control), I have absolutely nothing in common with buffoons like the aforementioned Johnson, and his great friend and ally, Farage (who, despite having wealthy parents and a far more advantaged education than I had, can speak 3 languages fewer than I can)! So what exact what this "Britishness" involves? Great question, but I do not expect any reasoned or sensible answer to the question.
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