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The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Picture: REUTERS/LEONHARD FOEGER
The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Picture: REUTERS/LEONHARD FOEGER

Two headlines appeared in international media last week that won’t appear in the SA press.

The first: two female LGBTQ activists sentenced to death for “corruption on earth” by an Iranian Revolutionary Court. It’s estimated that between 4,000 and 6,000 gays and lesbians have been executed since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

According to a British human rights campaigner, one of the accused women was denied access to a lawyer, and both will probably be hanged using the “barbaric, long, slow strangulation method much favoured by the Iranian regime in order to maximise the victim’s suffering”. 

The second headline revealed that five Palestinians have been executed by Hamas, two for “collaborating” with Israel and the others for murder and robbery. Since January this year 15 people have been executed by Hamas in Gaza.

These reports follow on earlier reports this year — again that didn’t feature in SA media — revealing that Saudi Arabia executed 81 people in a single day by decapitation with a sword.

An Iranian court has also sentenced three people to be blinded in one eye under that “civilised” country’s retribution law. One of those sentenced to this “humane” punishment was a woman. 

Allan Wolman
Tel Aviv, Israel

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