The execution of a 16-year old girl for "crimes against chastity" - Purity vs Justice

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5217424.stm

In church when I was growing up (it was a Methodist church, very evangelical), we had what we call cell groups, which were small groups that studied the Bible and offered each other support. At more than one meeting, I recall my cell group leader warning us with great passion to resist, at all costs, "homosexual temptations."

Now, I have a confession to make that may startle some. Despite my strong support for gay rights ... I haven't really experienced any homosexual temptations. And so, I nodded my head and resolved to resist such temptations if they ever hit me. Even later on, though, when I had met a lot of really hot gay guys, the heterosexual temptations are always much stronger. So I was always a little uncomfortable with and puzzled by my leader's vehemence.

And when I started questioning my church's teachings on homosexuality, I also wondered, why was not an equal amount of venom directed at social sins, like economic exploitation, environmental degradation, unjust imprisonments and phony trials? Why was the church so concerned about sexual sins? I've never heard Evangelical leaders, for example, say that those who commit multi billion-dollar corporate fraud and cheat investors of their life savings are in danger of hellfire (although it seems one moron priest compared Ken Lay to Jesus and to MLK: http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/12/news/newsmakers/lay.reut/ )

The above link details the story of Atefah Sahaaleh, hanged in a public square in Iran in 2004. Her death sentence was imposed for "crimes against chastity." She was 16, although the newspapers reported that she was 22 and the kangaroo courts that tried her did not determine her age.

To make matters worse, she was raped several times by a 51-year old married man, Ali Darabi. Darabi was investigated by the court, and received 95 lashes. Atefah had a difficult childhood, having to care for her grandparents, and was arrested at age 13, for being alone with a boy. She was arrested several more times, and the locals apparently saw her as a loose woman. The last time, she was arrested by religious police, not secular police, and was tried in a religious court. These courts do not answer to the Iranian parliament, and are inaccessible to human rights campaigners. And in courts that operate under the fundamentalist interpretation of shariah (Islamic law), proving a rape requires 4 adult men or 8 adult women as witnesses. Atefah confessed to the sexual abuse, but Darabi would have been able to say, "she encouraged me," or "she didn't dress modestly," and get off. Atefah realized her case was hopeless, and she shouted at the judge, Haji Rezai, and threw off her veil. This outburst was fatal. Rezai was a head of judiciary. He summarily condemned her to death.

To many Westerners the notion of religious courts with the power to execute people is anathema, but Muslims do not believe in separation of religion and state in the same manner as Westerners do. How they organize their societies to ensure justice for all is their business, not mine, to work out. My business, though, is to condemn people like Rezai who commit such atrocities in the name of God. Such people twist the words of God to suit their own small-minded ends. And generally, when they do so, they focus on issues of purity. We can see such twisting in the actions of the Religious Right in America, trying to outlaw gay marriage and abortion.

But God said, "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." (Hosea 6:6) Purity codes have their place. For the ancient Israelites, many aspects of their purity code kept them safe from infectious diseases - for example, you were unclean if you came into contact with a dead body. In modern hospitals, secular purity codes (washing, wearing gloves and masks, disinfection) keep us all safe from diseases as well. But purity codes have also been applied to oppress people. The Nazis did this with their race ideology, as did Americans before them. Much of Jesus' mission on earth was speaking out against the Pharisees' misues of the purity codes.

For Atefah Sahaaleh, I pray for eternal rest in the arms of a loving God. For Haji Rezai and others like him, I pray for mercy on the day of judgment, for liberation from power-over, the need to use power to dominate others, and for liberation from the misuse of the codes. And I pray for the safety of all those who find themselves at the wrong end of the purity codes.