16, US sponsored Radio Farda interviewed Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer, human rights activist and 2003 Nobel Winner. Following are some of the scripts of her interview:
“As for human rights, the death penalty is an absurd and unacceptable penalty because the reason for penalty is to reform the convicted and by killing someone that possibility is taken from him and therefore the the death penalty is rejected.”
“Iran’s government not only in the cases of many crimes calls for death penalty but unfortunately in action they use it very often too. Especially comparing to prior years, this year the number of executions has multiplied and worse than all, they even exercise the death penalty for children under the age of 18 .”
“Based on the Sharia Islamic laws which were ratified after the Islamic revolution, the penal age for girls was changed to 9 for girls and 5 for boys. Therefore a 10 year old girl or a 16 year old boy in the eyes of law are the considered the same as a 40 year old man who commits a crime.”
“One of the problems with the children rights is that in Iran the childhood age for each matter is different. For example if the same boy (Mohammadreza Turk) who was executed because of murder at the age of 16 wanted to obtain a passport to leave the country, he had to obtain his father’s permission. On one hand (Iran’s) law states that until the age of 18 a person is not mature enough to leave the country but when it comes to penal laws unfortunately it states that the child is held responsible for his actions and therefore they issue death penalty!”