How Sad.: Shahla Jahed: Iran executes woman accused of murdering lover's wife | The Guardian

Shahla Jahed Shahla Jahed, the mistress of Iranian football star Naser Mohammadkhani, during her trial in Tehran. Photograph: Str/AFP/Getty Images

Iran faced widespread international condemnation today after executing a woman who had been convicted of murdering the wife of her football player lover.

Shahla Jahed was hanged before dawn in the courtyard of Evin prison in Tehran in the presence of the murdered woman's family. Iran is second only to China in its use of capital punishment. Last year it staged 388 executions, according to Amnesty International.

Amnesty and other human rights organisations had called on Iran to stop the hanging on the grounds that there were doubts about the fairness of Jahed's trial. "Shahla Jahed's execution, like all such executions, is an example of premeditated and cold-blooded killing by the state, and is particularly distressing as there were serious concerns over the fairness of the trial, and the evidence used against the defendant," Amnesty said. The Foreign Office also condemned the execution.

Jahed was found guilty of the murder in 2002 of Laleh Saharkhizan, the wife of Naser Mohammadkhani, a football legend who rose to fame in the mid-1980s and who coached Tehran's Persepolis club. A documentary about her case, Red Card, was banned. According to the Isna news agency, Saharkhizan's brother carried out the final stage of the execution by kicking away the stool on which Jahed was standing with the noose around her neck.

Just before the hanging Jahed prayed, then burst into tears, shouting for her life to be spared. The victim's family could, according to Iranian law, have spared her life by pardoning her.

Jahed, who had been held in Evin prison for the past nine years, was sentenced to death on the basis of her confession, which she later repeatedly retracted at her public trial.

In 2008, the then chief of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, ordered a fresh investigation and did not sanction her execution.

Activists in Iran suspect Jahed was forced to confess to the stabbing. Karim Lahidji, president of the Iranian League for Human Rights, described her as "a victim of a misogynous society". The hanging came amid uncertainty about the fate of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery was suspended after an international outcry. But she may yet be hanged for involvement in the murder of her husband.

Following the murder, Jahed was arrested as the prime suspect but refused to talk for nearly a year. Mohammadkhani was also imprisoned for several months on charges of complicity but was finally released after the authorities said Jahed had confessed to committing the crime alone.

Mohammadkhani was in Germany when the killing happened, but it emerged later that he was "temporarily married" to Jahed, a practice allowed under Shia Islam. Temporary marriage, known as sigheh in Iran, allows men to take on wives for anything from a few hours to years, on condition that any offspring are legally and financially provided for. Critics of the tradition see it as legalised prostitution.

Fereshteh Ghazi, 31, a former cellmate of Jahed's who spent two weeks in prison with her in 2004 told the Guardian from Atlanta, Georgia: "Even if Shahla had committed the crime, which she didn't, Shahla and the murdered wife are both victims of a male-dominated society, a system that gives all the rights to men. Shahla, Laleh [the murdered wife], and all other women like them are all victims of flaws in the Iranian judicial system and Iran's unequal judicial system. Even the person who pulled away the chair today in her execution is a victim of the system."

"I can say that she was a very emotional woman. She was always very energetic and happy and at the same time she was very sad. You could see the sadness in her eyes, but she had an optimistic outlook … she used to help all the new inmates.

"Like her first appearance at her trial she told me in the prison that she was beaten up for 11 months and she was tortured. But she didn't confess until Naser Mohammadkhani came to see her and asked her to take responsibility for the murder and she did so."

Shahla is the 146th person to be executed in Iran this year.

Global protest needed: Misogynist states, Saudi Arabia & Iran vying for board of UN Women

Iran, where a woman convicted of adultery has been sentenced to death by stoning, is likely to become a member of the board of the new U.N. agency to promote equality for women, prompting outrage from the U.S. and human rights groups.

Some rights groups are also upset that Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive and are barred from many facilities used by men, is also vying to join the governing body of UN Women.

The General Assembly resolution adopted in July that merged four U.N. bodies dealing with women's issues into a single agency with greater clout to represent half the world's population calls for a 41-member executive board, with 35 members chosen by regional groups and six representing donor nations.

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The Asian group has put forward an uncontested 10-nation slate that includes Iran, U.N. diplomats said, and Saudi Arabia has been selected for one of two slots for emerging donor nations.

The 54 nations on the U.N. Economic and Social Council are expected to elect UN Women's board on Nov. 10, and it is possible that other Asian nations or emerging donor nations could become candidates though diplomats say it's not likely.

Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the U.S. Mission, said Wednesday that Iran's membership "would send the wrong signal at the start of this exciting new initiative."

"UN Women is a vital new agency tasked with promoting gender equality and women's empowerment worldwide," he said. "We and many other countries are concerned by the negative implications of Iran's potential board memberships, given its poor record on human rights and the treatment of women.

"There are many qualified countries that would make positive and constructive contributions as board members," Kornblau said.

The stoning sentence against the 43-year-old woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, has raised an international outcry, embarrassing Iran.

A resolution adopted by the General Assembly last year expressed "deep concern" at Iran's increasing use of executions, death by stoning, torture, flogging and amputations, and its increasing discrimination against religious, ethnic and other minorities.

Philippe Bolopion, U.N. advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said "it's puzzling that Iran would have the nerve to be a candidate for the board of UN Women, and even more puzzling if the Asia group lets Iran get away with it."

"Having on top of it Saudi Arabia, a country with a track record on women's rights as horrendous as Iran's, would add insult to injury," he said.

Bolopion called their potential membership "an affront to women around the world who are placing their hopes in UN Women," but he expressed hope that the board's overall composition will ensure that neither country will be able to use their position to undermine the agency's work.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon chose former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet to head UN Women, an appointment greeted with overwhelming approval by governments and women's groups who campaigned for four years to streamline the U.N.'s activities promoting the status of women.

The framework for UN Women's work is the platform to achieve women's equality adopted by 189 nations at the 1995 U.N. women's conference in Beijing. It called for governments to end discrimination against women and close the gender gap in 12 critical areas including health, education, employment, political participation and human rights.

Bolopion and Jose Luis Diaz, Amnesty International's U.N. representative, were critical of regional groups pre-selecting candidates instead of allowing a contested election in which countries choose candidates and reject ones they deem unqualified.

"Sadly, the issue is not just an individual country's track record on women's rights, dismal though that may be," Diaz said. "A clean slate guarantees countries a seat in the executive body, regardless of their record in protecting women's rights or promoting gender equality. The failure to ensure competitive elections is the responsibility of all member states."

Cora Weiss, president of the Hague Appeal for Peace, said that if board membership "helps to influence Iran's attitude toward women then fine, but if Iran uses it to hold back our dreams and vision for equality then it's a disaster."

According to U.N. diplomats, the 10 countries selected by the Asian group for the board are Iran, Bangladesh, India, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Kazakhstan and Pakistan. Eastern Europe and Latin America have put forward contested slates, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the lists have not been made public.

The resolution earmarks four seats from the 10 top donor nations and diplomats said the candidates are the United States, Britain, Spain and Norway. It allocated two seats to contributors from developing countries and diplomats said the candidates are Saudi Arabia and Mexico.