Opinion Op-Ed Marziyeh Amirizadeh Recently, the story of a Jewish Iranian man, Arvin Netanel, has been in the news around the world. Arvin is in his early 20s and was sentenced to death for killing a Muslim man, Amir Shokri, in a brawl two years ago. Apparently, Arvin loaned money to Amir who refused to pay it back.
When Arvin confronted him, Amir attacked him with a knife. In self-defense, Arvin killed Amir. According to the Islamic law if a non-Muslim kills a Muslim, Qisas, (retaliation) “an eye for an eye” can be applied.
But if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim, the law does not apply and there will be no death penalty. Iran’s judicial system is systemically corrupt, and always favors Muslim men. It does not care about the lives of minorities, prioritizing the rights of Muslims over Jews, Christians, Baha’is and other religious and ethnic minorities.
And men over women. Unfortunately, I know more than I would ever want to know about the evil abuse of radical Islamic laws. I was born in Iran and, as a young woman, became a Christian.
Iranian Islamic law considers conversion to Christianity “apostacy,” a “crime” that carries the death penalty. I was arrested and sentenced to death and held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for nine months in 2009. During this period, other than suffering personally, I witnessed the execution of many friends and cellmates.
One case of “Islamic justice” was the execution of one of my cellmates, Zeynab Nazarzadeh, who was held .