Iran: Keeping up "public morality"

The short life and cruel death of Atefeh Rajabi

When she was executed on 15 August 2004, Atefeh Rajabi was only 16 years old. She was hanged from a crane in the main square of the small town Neka in Mazandaran province and kept dangling high above the shocked and weeping crowd for 45 minutes. Her crime was "an act incompatible with chastity", says the judgement of the local court which had been confirmed by the Supreme Court. It is claimed that she had sexual contact with an elder man. Most likely she was raped, but the court was not interested in these details. Atefeh, who had no access to a lawyer, tried to defend herself, but that made things worse for her. She "undressed in court" (removed her headscarf) and she had a "sharp tongue", said the judge, one Haji Razaie, and sentenced her to death. He got so agitated that he put personally the noose around the young girl's neck. When the case went to the Supreme Court, he traveled to Tehran to convince the SC judges to uphold his decision, it is heard. They did so. Iran's judiciary is ruled by Islamic fundamentalists. After Atefeh's execution, judge Haji Razaie received a letter of congratulation for his "firm approach" from the governor of Mazandaran.

An unnamed Iranian journalist of Iran Focus talked to some of Atefeh's class mates, friends, relatives and neighbors to shed light on the gruesome fate of the young girl. They described Atefeh as intelligent, lively, but rebellious. She lived in extreme poverty. Her father, an unemployed drug addict, vanished before she was born. Her mother died when she was a very small child and left her an orphan in the care of her old grandparents, who were already in their seventies at that time. She became a victim of violence and exploitation by relatives and by local officials. At least one of her relatives used to rape her, but she did not dare to accuse him, as she knew that nobody would support her. When she was 16, she had already been five times convicted for immoral behavior. Every time she got 100 lashes and was taken to prison for some days, where she was abused by the Islamic moral police. She was terrified about those prison days. Behshahr prison in Neka is the hell, she told a close friend.

Child execution in Iran has been branded by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations since years. Under this pressure, the old parliament tabled a bill in 2003 to raise the minimum age for execution to 18 years. But the bill was rejected by the all-powerful Guardian Council. According to Amnesty International, there are 10 documented cases of child execution since 1990. In 2004, the case of Atefeh Rajabi is already the third known case (among 108 known executions in total). These numbers may be only the tip of the iceberg.

The fundamentalist clerics in Iran's judiciary are not the only ones sentencing minors to death. So does, for example, the judiciary of the USA.

Norway: State funds for witchcraft

According to her claims, Lena Skarning is a "witch". Dressed in black, the traditional cat on her shoulder, she would indulge in palm reading and fortune telling, offer potions against all kinds of illnesses and bad habits and do a lot of magic. Strange claims in the 21st century - some centuries back she would have been burned at the stake for such confessions. But though Norway has still a state church, times have changed. Today the authorities - in what seems to be a special kind of distasteful humor - fancy to fund witchcraft with public money!

After attending a seminar on entrepreneurship, the 33-year-old self-styled witch got the idea to apply for a state grant promoting business newcomers - and she got it. "Forest Witch Magic Consulting" is a "pretty reasonable and well thought out" business plan, found officials of the development fund and granted her 53,000 Kroners (7,500 Dollars) public money to set up shop. The only condition: Skarning had to promise not to harm anybody with bad spells or black magic.

Skarning is not the only professional witch in Norway. There are more, and their business seems to be quite profitable. Eli Karine Pedersen for example, a 44-year-old former psychiatric nurse, makes 500,000 Kroners (72,500 Dollars) per year by providing "witch experience" to those who feel they are in need of such a thing. Some days back, Norway's professional witches met for a conference in Verdoe, a small town in the extreme north, to talk business.

Only three hundred years back, in 1695, the last "witch" was burned in Norway. Between 15th and 18th century, more than 50,000 "witches" were cruelly tortured and killed under the leadership of the church in Europe.

UK: Operation "Sweet Lord"

Reverend Nigel McCulloch, Bishop of Manchester, has developed a controversial new marketing strategy to rescue the Church of England from extinction: He plans to fill the empty pews by luring church-goers with chocolate. All those who follow his dashing invitation cards and attend the Sunday service will be rewarded with sweet bars and gift bags. First timers also get a glossy brochure about the church. It looks like professional PR for a glamorous new product, feel his critics.

"We will, unless there is a turn in the tide, be a Church which gradually disappears from this country", says McCulloch. If no immediate action is taken, the British State Church will breathe its last "within a generation or two", is the bishop's hotly debated diagnosis. It is supported by figures. The ever-dwindling number of church members is threatening to fall beyond the six million mark by next year, that is under 10 per cent of the population. Very meager for a state church.

More than half of the parishes in McCulloch's Manchester diocese have already joined the chocolate scheme, which is financed by a pious business man. Main target group are people over 50, who used to go to church earlier, but stopped. First highlight of the campaign will be the autumn harvest festival on 26 September. The priests are advised to pep up the festival service with something really entertaining like the screening of a humorous movie.