Iranian Woman Sentenced To Die For Killing Attacker

(RFE/RL) 7 January 2006 -- Iran's "Etemad" newspaper reports today that an 18-year-old woman has been sentenced to death by hanging for killing a man she said was trying to rape her.

The newspaper reported that the woman, identified only as Nazanin, testified during her trial that she and her niece were out with their boyfriends when they were accosted by two men who chased away the boyfriends then tried to rape the two young women.

Nazanin admitted stabbing one of the men to prevent her and her niece from being assaulted.

Nazanin was only 17 years old at the time, but under Iranian law a boy can be executed from the age of 15 and a girl from the age of nine.

At least 81 people were executed in 2005 in Iran, which has been heavily criticized within the international community for its laws and practices on capital punishment.

(AFP)