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On October 25, 2014, the headlines announced the shocking news: Reyhaneh Jabbari was hanged. The whole world was involved in the fight for the Iranian woman’s life. Despite the intercession of Amnesty International, the United Nations and the European Union, the death penalty has become a reality and a story that should never have happened has come to an end. The woman was then 26 years old. She was guilty of meeting a man who wanted to hurt her on her way.
“I wanted to scream but I couldn’t make a sound”
Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi first met Reyhaneh on the street. The 19-year-old worked as an interior decorator and was on the phone with a client. Sarbandi didn’t waste a minute. When she finished talking, he came over to her and told her about his office. He argued that he needed the help of a decorator. They exchanged contacts. Soon the man called her and they arranged for her to view the premises. The day her foot crossed the threshold was the day she was sentenced. In the film “Seven Winters in Tehran” directed by Steffi Niederzoll, there are fragments of letters in which she recalled a tragic meeting.
Fifth floor. The door was next to the elevator. Dr. Sarabandi opened it with a key. I was in shock. It was not a commercial space. I left the door open. He told me to take off my shawl, but I was scared. I looked around the rooms – I sketched everything and took notes. Then I wanted to leave. He got up from the prayer mat and came over to me. There was already a sheet on the sofa. I looked towards the door. They were closed. He approached me. I rushed to the exit and grabbed the doorknob. The door was locked. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t make any sound
she wrote. According to her story, the man allegedly put his arm around her waist and grabbed her hair, then pressed her face to his and hissed: “No one is here. No one will hear you.” The 19-year-old put everything on the line. She grabbed the knife that was on the table and once again asked the man to let her go. Then she struck a blow. The attacker bled to death in the apartment.
Reyhaneh Jabbari. Seven years of fighting for life
In 2007, Reyhaneh Jabbari was imprisoned and her case was doomed from the start. Despite the woman’s testimony that as she ran out of the apartment she passed the man who was to murder Sarbandi at the door, the police forced Jabbari to plead guilty. In the name of Iran’s Qisas law, i.e. retaliation based on inflicting the same or similar harm that the perpetrator caused to the victim, the 19-year-old was sentenced to death. Only the grace of the deceased’s family could save her. Unfortunately, it failed.
Like many others, we are absolutely shocked by this parody of justice. The execution of Reyhaneh is a tragic moment for many people in Iran and for members of the international community who hoped for a different outcome
Raha Bahreini of Amnesty International later said.
The film “Seven Winters in Teheran” shown at Millennium Docs Against Gravity is a patchwork of letters, conversations with loved ones and archival recordings that tell the dramatic story of a teenager from the very beginning to the end. Reyhaneh Jabbari’s letters are read in the voice of Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, who received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022 for her role in “Holy Spider”.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
