Woman Sentenced to be Blinded

TEHRAN, July 24 (AFP) - A court in southwest Iran condemned a young woman to be
blinded after she blinded a man who was harassing her by throwing acid at him,
a government newspaper reported Wednesday.

Azam, 21, a resident of Behbahan village in Khuzestan province told the court
that Abol Ali, 37, would come and "harass" her at night while her husband was
away at work, the Iran newspaper reported.

"One night, he threatened me with a firearm, and said he would climb over the
wall if I did not open the door.

"I remembered I had some ... acid in the kitchen to unblock sinks. So I opened
the window and threw it at his face," Azam was quoted as saying during her
trial.

Ali, now blind, gave a different account.

"This woman is wrong, I wanted only to warn her about something. As I went by
her house, she opened the window, called me, and threw something at my face and
chest. After that, I remember nothing," he explained.

The judge ruled Tuesday that Ali had only "words, not actions" to be blamed
for, and said Azam "was not in a situation of self-defense, and should not have
taken justice into her own hands."

He sentenced her "to be made blind in public", but Azam has appealed the
verdict.

Iran's civil and criminal law adheres to the Islamic
"eye-for-an-eye" principle, with the punishment matching the crime, in force
since the 1979 Islamic revolution.