Efforts for clemency had intensified in recent weeks.
Jabbari's mother was allowed to visit her for one hour on Friday, a custom that
tends to precede executions in Iran.
A UN human rights monitor had said the killing of Sarbandi
was an act of self-defence after he tried to sexually assault Jabbari, and that
her trial in 2009 had been deeply flawed.
In April she addressed the following letter to her mother
Sholeh and her family:
Dear Sholeh, today I learned that it is now my turn to
face Qisas (the Iranian regime's law of retribution). I am hurt as to why you
did not let me know yourself that I have reached the last page of the book of
my life. Don’t you think that I should know? You know how ashamed I am that you
are sad. Why did you not take the chance for me to kiss your hand and that of
dad?
The world allowed me to live for 19 years. That ominous
night it was I that should have been killed. My body would have been thrown in
some corner of the city, and after a few days, the police would have taken you
to the coroner’s office to identify my body and there you would also learn that
I had been raped as well. The murderer would have never been found since we
don’t have their wealth and their power. Then you would have continued your
life suffering and ashamed, and a few years later you would have died of this
suffering and that would have been that.
However, with that cursed blow the story changed. My body
was not thrown aside, but into the grave of Evin Prison and its solitary wards,
and now the grave-like prison of Shahr-e Ray. But give in to the fate and don’t
complain. You know better that death is not the end of life.
You taught me that one comes to this world to gain an
experience and learn a lesson and with each birth a responsibility is put on
one’s shoulder. I learned that sometimes one has to fight. I do remember when
you told me that the carriage man protested the man who was flogging me, but
the flogger hit the lash on his head and face that ultimately led to his death.
You told me that for creating a value one should persevere even if one dies.
You taught us that as we go to school one should be a
lady in face of the quarrels and complaints. Do you remember how much you
underlined the way we behave? Your experience was incorrect. When this incident
happened, my teachings did not help me. Being presented in court made me appear
as a cold-blooded murderer and a ruthless criminal. I shed no tears. I did not
beg. I did not cry my head off since I trusted the law.
But I was charged with being indifferent in face of a
crime. You see, I didn’t even kill the mosquitoes and I threw away the
cockroaches by taking them by their antennas. Now I have become a premeditated
murderer. My treatment of the animals was interpreted as being inclined to be a
boy and the judge didn’t even trouble himself to look at the fact that at the
time of the incident I had long and polished nails.
How optimistic was he who expected justice from the
judges! He never questioned the fact that my hands are not coarse like those of
a sportswoman, especially a boxer. And this country that you planted its love
in me never wanted me and no one supported me when under the blows of the
interrogator I was crying out and I was hearing the most vulgar terms. When I
shed the last sign of beauty from myself by shaving my hair I was rewarded: 11 days
in solitary.
Dear Sholeh, don’t cry for what you are hearing. On the
first day that in the police office an old unmarried agent hurt me for my nails
I understood that beauty is not looked for in this era. The beauty of looks,
beauty of thoughts and wishes, a beautiful handwriting, beauty of the eyes and
vision, and even beauty of a nice voice.
My dear mother, my ideology has changed and you are not
responsible for it. My words are unending and I gave it all to someone so that
when I am executed without your presence and knowledge, it would be given to
you. I left you much handwritten material as my heritage.
However, before my death I want something from you, that
you have to provide for me with all your might and in any way that you can. In
fact this is the only thing I want from this world, this country and you. I
know you need time for this. Therefore, I am telling you part of my will
sooner. Please don’t cry and listen. I want you to go to the court and tell
them my request. I cannot write such a letter from inside the prison that would
be approved by the head of prison; so once again you have to suffer because of
me. It is the only thing that if even you beg for it I would not become upset
although I have told you many times not to beg to save me from being executed.
My kind mother, dear Sholeh, the one more dear to me than
my life, I don’t want to rot under the soil. I don’t want my eye or my young
heart to turn into dust. Beg so that it is arranged that as soon as I am hanged
my heart, kidney, eye, bones and anything that can be transplanted be taken
away from my body and given to someone who needs them as a gift. I don’t want
the recipient know my name, buy me a bouquet, or even pray for me. I am telling
you from the bottom of my heart that I don’t want to have a grave for you to
come and mourn there and suffer. I don’t want you to wear black clothing for
me. Do your best to forget my difficult days. Give me to the wind to take away.
The world did not love us. It did not want my fate. And
now I am giving in to it and embrace the death. Because in the court of God I
will charge the inspectors, I will charge inspector Shamlou, I will charge
judge, and the judges of country’s Supreme Court that beat me up when I was
awake and did not refrain from harassing me. In the court of the creator I will
charge Dr. Farvandi, I will charge Qassem Shabani and all those that out of
ignorance or with their lies wronged me and trampled on my rights and didn’t
pay heed to the fact that sometimes what appears as reality is different from
it.
Dear soft-hearted Sholeh, in the other world it is you
and me who are the accusers and others who are the accused. Let’s see what God
wants. I wanted to embrace you until I die. I love you.
Rayhaneh, April 1, 2014
UCL is deeply grateful to Rayhaneh for this lesson in humanity. We call for immediate and total abolition of the death penalty for women throughout the world. A penalty designed, judged, and carried out by men is archaic barbarity.