Eye-for-eye, Iran style

Blinded Iranian seeks eye-for-eye justice

An Iranian woman living in Spain said she welcomed a Tehran court ruling that awards her eye-for-an-eye justice against a suitor who blinded her with acid.

Ameneh Bahrami, 30, told Cadena SER radio, "I am not doing this out of revenge, but rather so that the suffering I went through is not repeated."

Late last year an Iranian court ruled that the man - identified only as Majid - who blinded Ms Bahrami in 2004 after she spurned him, should also be blinded with acid, based on the Islamic law system of "qisas", or eye for an eye retribution.

But Ms Bahrami, who moved to Spain to get medical treatment after the attack, said on Wednesday that, under Iranian law, she is entitled to blind her attacker in only one eye, unless she pays €20,000 ($39,000), because in Iran women are not considered equal to men.

"They have told us that my two eyes are equal to one of his because in my country each man is worth two women. They are not the same," she told Cadena SER.

Ms Bahrami explained that she was now waiting for a letter from the court to go back to Iran for the punishment to be carried out.

Cadenda SER said that, after undergoing treatment in Barcelona, Ms Bahrami recovered 40 per cent vision in one eye but since then doctors have not been able to prevent her from going totally blind. She also suffered horrific burns to her face, scalp and body.

She said she now survives on €400 a month in aid from the Spanish Government.

The woman said Majid would be blinded by having several drops of acid put into one eye, whereas she had acid splashed all over her face and other parts of her body.

No one at the Iranian embassy was available for comment.