TalkLeft, PageOneQ and other sites yesterday posted a dramatic account of two Iranian teenagers who were publicly flogged and then hanged. The TalkLeft headline, (also from Doug Ireland): "Iran Executes Two Gay Teenagers." But amid all the outrage, something important seems to have been lost: an apparent 13-year-old victim of rape. From today's Times of London:
Public execution for the teenagers convicted of rape
IRAN has publicly hanged two male teenagers convicted of raping a 13-year-old
boy at knifepoint. After the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of child rape, they were executed on Tuesday in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad. The British gay rights group Outrage! has accused Iran of torturing the two into confessing that they had homosexual sex. It believes that the assault charges were a smokescreen to justify killing homosexuals.
Are Outrage!, TalkLeft and the other advocates objecting to the capitol punishment (we American "barbarians" have got that, too,) the age of the teens, or is it simply the fact that they appear to have been homosexual? And what about the charges -- that they didn't simply engage in consensual homosexual sex, but that they supposedly took part in the gang rape (perhaps with three other men -- of a 13 year old boy at knifepoint? Are gay rights groups excusing that? For the record, I'm against capital punishment and find the notion of hanging teenagers abhorrent. If those boys really did commit gang rape, they should have been locked up. I hope all of the outraged agree. |
