Amnesty International
A 19-year old girl, “Leyla M”, who has a mental age of eight, reportedly
faces imminent execution for “morality-related” offences after being forced
into prostitution by her mother as a child. According to a
Social workers have reportedly tested her mental capacities repeatedly and each time have found Leyla to have a mental age of eight. However, she has apparently never been examined by the court-appointed doctors, and was sentenced to death solely on the basis of her explicit confessions, without consideration of her background or mental health.
Leyla was forced into prostitution by her mother when she was eight years old, according to the November 28 report, and was raped repeatedly thereafter. She gave birth to her first child when she was nine, and was sentenced to 100 lashes for prostitution at around the same time. At the age of 12, her family sold her to an Afghan man to become his “temporary wife”. His mother became her new pimp, “selling her body without her consent”.
At the age of 14 she became pregnant again, and received a further 100 lashes, after which she was moved to a maternity ward to give birth to twins. After this “temporary marriage”, her family sold her again, to a 55-year-old man, married with two children, who had Leyla’s customers come to his house.
The newspaper report makes no mention of her family or the men to whom she was married.
Iranian law recognizes two types of marriage - “permanent” and “temporary” (for any defined period from 24 hours to 99 years). A man can have up to four “permanent” wives and numerous temporary ones.