Under the Iranian code, the worth of a woman's life equals half of a man's, a point that often leads to grotesque legal judgments that effectively punish the victims. In this instance, the judge ruled that the 'blood money' for the two men was worth more than the life of the murdered nine-year-old girl, and he demanded that her family come up with thousands of dollars to finance their executions.
The Iranian legal system assigns a woman's life a value that is half that of a man's, which results in alarming judicial outcomes that penalize victims rather than perpetrators. In a disturbing case highlighted by Shirin Ebadi in her memoir, a judge determined that the compensation required for the execution of two men convicted of a murder was greater than the life of a nine-year-old girl who was killed.
This ruling compelled the victim's family to gather a significant amount of money to pay for the executions of the men responsible for their daughter's death, illustrating a grave injustice within the legal framework that prioritizes financial considerations over human life.
