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Wed Dec 1 22:50:39 GMT 2010

Comments inserted at the end

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran on Wednesday hanged a former soccer player's mistress — 
known as a "temporary wife — who was convicted of murdering her love rival, the 
player's wife, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Shahla Jahed was hanged at dawn, after spending more than eight years in jail, 
IRNA said, in a case that has captivated the Iranian public for several years.
Jahed had become what is known as a "temporary wife" of former soccer star 
Nasser Mohammad Khani. She was charged in 2002 with stabbing to death Laleh 
Saharkhizan, the player's wife, and convicted of murder in 2004 and again in 
2009, after her appeal was denied.
Contracts with "temporary wives" are a legal way for Iranian men to have 
mistresses outside marriage, with the agreements lasting from between several 
hours to a few years.
Wednesday's death sentence was based on the Islamic law of "qisas" — or eye for 
an eye retribution.
International human rights groups, including Amnesty International, had 
campaigned for Jahed's punishment to be halted.
The IRNA report said that just before the hanging at Tehran's Evin prison, the 
40-year-old Jahed prayed peacefully, then burst into tears and cries, shouting 
for her life to be spared.
The victim's son pulled the chair from under her feet as Jahed gasped for breath 
in the remaining moments of her life, the khabaronline.ir news website said. The 
former soccer striker, Khani, also attended the hanging.
The reports also said that judiciary officials spent almost an hour in talks 
with Saharkhizan's family before the hanging, trying to convince them to spare 
Jahed's life but were unsuccessful.
Prominent artists and respected cultural figures in Iran have also for years 
appealed to the victim's family to show mercy.
Under Iranian law, men and women can commit to a "temporary marriage" for an 
agreed period of time after a certain amount of money is paid to the woman.
In Iran, men are allowed up to four legal wives under Islam and any number of 
temporary wives. Women can only be married to one man at a time.
Jahed initially denied any involvement in Saharkhizan's killing but later 
confessed to the stabbing, only to subsequently withdraw the confession. Several 
Iranian experts have said she may have been wrongfully convicted.
Murder, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping and drug trafficking are crimes 
punishable with the death penalty in Iran.

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I am not going to argue against capital punishement
A number of fine countries do them ;-)

1 ) The hypocrisy of "temporary wife" 
Socially sanctioned and legalised adultery ! ! !
I very much like to think that totalitarian and/or highly religious countries
Have less crime, less moral deviations, les pornography, less individual 
violence, less pedophilly
And maybe they do
But
They also have
Religious sanctioned pedophilly (Iman marrying underage girls to rich older man)
State executed and religiously supported disparate punishement (ex: Stoning for 
adultery)
Treating women as (sex) objects (covering them as instead of uncovering them... 
different idea - same result)

more, I'll spare you

2 ) Surprisee to see that the families can argue and come to a "deal"  (Pr No 
deal
And that a family member get's to pull the "chair". I can not arguew that this 
practice is necessarily bad.

3 ) And topical medical point
"Pulling the chair" means the condemned does not fall from a Neck Breaking 
height (9 feet, weight dependant) and is put to death by nuqual strangulation 
(Slower and more cruel) ! ???
Backwardness, like evertything else, comes in varying degrees, I guess ?

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Iran on Wednesday hanged a former soccer player's "temporary wife" — who was convicted of murdering her love