Save Akram From Execution

Akram Mahdavi is another victim of unjust and unequal laws in a country where, for the most part, the legal system considers females only half human, and where women's rights, as well as their cries for help are routinely and systematically ignored, trampled upon, and even ridiculed.

The now 32 year old mother of a girl in her early teens is facing imminent execution in the Islamic Republic of Iran on charges of conspiracy to murdering her abusive husband. According to court documents, and other reliable sources including Akram's defense counsel, Ms. Mina Jafari, when Akram was 27 years old, she sought the assistance of a young male friend and conspired to murder her then 74 year old husband. Akram, who suffers from epilepsy among other ailments, had been forced to marry the substantially older man by her father. As Akram expalins "they beat me until they got the 'l do' out of me." And that is how Akram, at age 20, became a bride and a wife for the second time.

Akram's first marriage took place when she was only 13 years old (the legal age of marriage for girls in the Islamic Republic of Iran), when she was forced into marrying a man who was 40 years her senior and an abusive drug addict. The couple had a daughter, who Akram had to find a way to support financially and otherwise. Unfortunately, however, Akram's parents had prevented her from attending school after the 5th grade, thereby denying her not only her education, but also the chance to gain the skills necessary to find employment and obtain financial independence.

Read her story her:

http://saveakramen.blogspot.com/